Best Buddies seeks to provide one-on-one relationships between students with different backgrounds and abilities to foster mentoring and friendship.
Through an application and selection process, students are matched with each other to be “best buddies” for the rest of the year. For both students, these relationships can mean everything.
Best Buddies at UTK stems off of Best Buddies International, a nonprofit 501 organization dedicated to creating opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by pairing those with disabilities with someone to serve as a friend and mentor.
On Sunday evening, this year’s Best Buddies were matched up at their annual Match Party. Emily Allen was one of the students who got matched at yesterday’s party.
For Allen, these friendships are essential to feeling like a regular college student. Being in the UT Future program, Allen receives mentorship to assist her in her collegiate experience. These mentorships mitigate obstacles that cause difficulties in her daily routine.
Allen describes Best Buddies as a way to make and sustain positive relationships with people who care for her.
“I think best buddies is a great thing to be in. It’s always good to have someone to talk to and hang out with,” Allen said.
Allen is currently living her “dream” as a college student at UT and has even bigger dreams for her life when she graduates.
“I want to work in an office after college,” Allen said, describing her future goal.
Allen currently works as an intern at Visit Knoxville and celebrates both the small and large successes in her life. While the Future program provides her with extra assistance in the classroom and at internships, meaningful friendships are what truly make the university feel like home for Allen and other students in Best Buddies.
For sophomore in psychology Simeon Glover, getting involved in Best Buddies at UT wasn’t even a question. Having been the chapter president of Best Buddies in high school, Glover had been disheartened to leave the organization after graduating. However, after running into a student wearing a Best Buddies shirt on campus, Glover found out that the student was a member of our collegiate chapter.
“I was so relieved to find out that Best Buddies was on campus and I can’t wait for a fourth year in Best Buddies this year!” Glover said.
Glover described his experience with Best Buddies as being impactful and empowering for both himself and the students he is able to connect with.
“Best Buddies has opened my eyes to a new world, a world that most people forget about or pay no attention to the world of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Glover said.
Glover explained that the students he works with are simply looking for a place to belong. The Best Buddies international website describes the organization as seeking to end the social isolation associated with intellectual and developmental disabilities and having the desire to empower and enable successes in members on both sides of the friendships.
“I wouldn’t be the person I am today and for that, I’m forever grateful and indebted to Best Buddies,” Glover said.
