Portrait of a Servant Leader
Anna Hampton
Hometown: Canton, Ohio
Class: Senior
Major: Public Leadership and Service
Minor: Psychology
According to the Forum on Child and Family Statistics there are forty-eight births for every thousand unmarried women ages 15-44. Further, these children are at greater risk for adverse consequences when born to a single mother because the social, emotional, and financial resources available to the family may be more limited.
While the circumstances for these families are often difficult and heartbreaking, there also rises the opportunity to provide a healing ministry through love and counseling.
Milligan senior Anna Hampton is an extraordinary college student who has a massive heart and an overwhelming passion to devote her life to ministering pregnant, under privileged women.
Anna, known for her bubbly personality and inviting smile, has a goal to run a pregnancy support center someday. In the meantime, she is doing everything in her capacity as a college student to follow God's call and embrace pregnant women with open arms.
Anna's interest in mentoring pregnant women began as a high school senior when she read the book, “Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments,” by Randy Alcorn. She then became the Public Relations and Event Coordinator for Rock for Life, a teen based organization that uses media to spread a pro-life message.
Recently, during her junior year at Milligan College in 2007, Anna had the unique opportunity to spend her spring semester in Washington D.C. as an intern at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center through the American Studies Program. Anna had such an amazing experience that she decided to forgo her entire summer vacation and remain working at the Pregnancy Center.
 The Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center is a privately funded organization established simply to help women in need. Women come to the Pregnancy Center for pregnancy tests, parenting classes, baby supplies, Bible studies, counseling and support. Anna's primary role at the Pregnancy Center was counseling women who came to the Center for help and guidance.
Anna saw women of all ages at the Center, starting at just eleven years old all the way to fifty years. A major problem in the D.C. area is that many gangs require the male gang members to sleep with five women before they can be initiated. Therefore, 89% of the women that came to the Pregnancy Center were inner city African Americans who had simply been used and as a result were pregnant.
When women came to the Pregnancy Center for help, Anna would sit and talk about their situation and available options. As Anna built relationships with the women over an extended period of time, she was able to earn their trust. As a strong Christian, Anna strived to offer Christ's love to the broken women as she mentored them.
“As we discussed their lives, I tried to share Christ and help them plan for the future with school and jobs. I wanted to be a supporting link that could help them move forward.”
 Aside from being a counselor, Anna also acted as a receptionist, attended board meetings, helped in planning banquets and events, and assisted in weekly parenting classes. The Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center aids more than 2000 different women each year, therefore Anna met many people during her eight months as an intern.
One specific experience that touched Anna's heart was a twenty-one year old woman named Angelica who called the Pregnancy Center 's hotline for help. Angelica had recently become pregnant and was being pressured by her family to have an abortion. Anna talked to Angelica on a regular basis and prayed consistently for her. After one specific prayer session, Anna encouraged Angelica to talk to her mother one more time. Surprisingly, Angelica's mother agreed to support her if she had the baby. Now, Angelica is back in school, has reconnected with her church, and still remains in close contact with Anna.
“It was awesome that God could use me to show her that she could keep her baby.”
A second touching experience involved a single dad named Antoine who was trying to raise his son. His girlfriend was raising her five siblings and also had a daughter, and she and Antoine also became pregnant with a child. Therefore, Antoine was attempting to support eight children by himself. He came to the Pregnancy Center because there was no other place with resources for single dads. Anna said, “He just broke down and sobbed to me.” At the end of the day, Antoine left the Center with a crib, car seat, diapers, formula, blankets, toys, and clothes.
“You reached me at my lowest point,” said Antoine to Anna. “You helped me so much. I have a job now and we are doing amazing. I'm the best dad I can be now.”
Anna has the unique talent and passion to reach parents in desperate need of love and wisdom.
“This is God's call for my life. I'm very passionate and I love these women. The mother always needs somebody and I cannot reach her baby unless I reach her mother. We all need somebody. At first I was so scared to say the wrong thing because we were so different but I was open and allowed God to use me. I felt so purposeful that I can't even describe it.”
 Anna's time at Milligan College greatly prepared her for the internship at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center. One of the biggest reasons she came to Milligan was because Milligan encourages internships and support students who take a semester away from school to pursue their passions.
Anna's internship was made possible through the Institute for Servant Leadership, a spiritual program at Milligan which helps students to discover their call in servant leadership and to help them discern their own vocation path through faith, service, and leadership.
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