Woodlands’ Peer Buddies’ Vice President, Clara Sweetland, attended The Best Buddies Leadership Conference 2025. It took place from July 18 to July 21, 2025 in Bloomington Indiana.
This once-in-a-lifetime experience brought people from many different places and backgrounds together. “I was able to make friends with people from Oxford, Watertown, and so many surrounding areas, which is good for our club and collaboration,” stated Sweetland.
This experience also gave students the opportunity to feel the college atmosphere. “We stayed in the dorms and ate from dining halls. It was nice to feel the college experience,” said Sweetland.
Over the past 30 years, The Best Buddies Leadership Conference (BBLC) has inspired thousands of leaders to be Best Buddies advocates and to bring about social change in their communities. “I was able to gain a lot of special leadership skills, and speak out about fundraisers that we’ve done to the other states and countries that were there,” added Sweetland. “I was also able to get plans together for the school year which have already helped execute some event planning,”
To add to the excitement, there were multiple special guests that attended such as the Best Buddies founder Anthony Shriver, Tanner Smith from Love on the Spectrum, Broadway performer David Burham, and many more. “I was able to get a picture with Tanner Smith, which was literally the best day of my life; it was so cool,” Sweetland said.
Overall, the BBLC was an uplifting, creative, and empowering experience that united leaders all around the globe advocating for the future of disability rights and the inclusion movement. “Everyone was happy and smiling all the time, and it was so much fun,”.
