Faces in the Crowd: Sydney Meininger

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The Nashoba Best Buddies community is easily the most inclusive part of Nashoba Regional High School. The program has many standout students, but one that stands out the most to me and much of Nashoba is Sydney Meininger.

Last week, Sydney visited Ayer-Shirley High School to speak about the introduction of Unified Track to their school. Sydney discussed the amazing impact that Unified Track has had on her high school experience and how inclusion at Nashoba has made all the difference in her time here.

She spoke to over 300 students about her experiences and advocated for the addition of similar programs at Ayer-Shirley. Mr. Kendall, a former Nashoba English teacher and current Ayer-Shirley athletic director, had high praises for Sydney’s speech and told the Chieftain Press that after the assembly, many students expressed interest in Unified Track and Panther Pals. Sydney said,  “One boy came up to me, he was in 10th grade, and said he was interested. It made me feel excited that they wanted to have Unified Track and Panther Pals.”  She was very happy that her speech had such an impact on Ayer-Shirley and their school.

Recently, Sydney also traveled to San Diego after being selected as a Youth Ambassador for Special Olympics. She spoke at a leadership conference for other ambassadors and had so much fun meeting new people and speaking about her experiences. Syd told me, “I met Tim Shriver, the chairman of Special Olympics, and we talked about Special Olympics and what it means to me to have these teams and opportunities at my school.” This opportunity for her to meet the chairman shows how many chances Syd gets to talk about inclusion not only at Nashoba but across the country.

Sydney continues to be a role model for her peers and for her many close friends, so many are thankful for her making such positive impact on our Nashoba community.