[Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Clark Ruper, Vice President of Students for Liberty.]

The 2013 International Students For Liberty Conference took place February 15-17 in Washington, DC. Started in 2008 by a bunch of libertarian college students frustrated by the lack of a real cohesive student movement for liberty, the conference has grown from a then surprising 100 attendees to over 1,400 this time around. While the growth of this event itself is exciting, what really matters is what it signifies, that our student groups are growing in size and number all over the world. That we truly are making a difference in the battle of ideas.

Aside from the raw numbers, this year’s conference also featured an incredibly diverse lineup of breakout sessions, featuring top speakers on topics ranging from civil liberties to gun rights to economic freedom and international relations. One of the most anticipated and well received sessions focused on Bleeding Heart Libertarianism, moderated by SFL Campus Coordinator Zack Slayback and featuring Jason Brennan, Steve Horwitz, and Sarah Skwire. The panel discussion created quite a buzz to say the least.

The main reason for my writing this post is to convey a personal story from the conference that I find to be quite powerful. While anecdotes by themselves can’t settle philosophical debates, I think this example provides an important proof of concept for the Bleeding Heart Libertarian project.

One of the co-founders of Students For Liberty is Sloane Frost, a Cornell and U Chicago grad and one of the best human beings I have ever met. She is from Chicago with family roots that trace back to the early US labor movements. She often jokes that she did not realize it was possible to identify as anything other than a Democrat until college. You could label her parents as on the American left with strong progressive and labor sympathies. Since the founding of SFL they have been confused to say the least over their daughter’s intense dedication to libertarianism and Students For Liberty in particular.

But this past weekend, something incredible happened. I was talking with Sloane on Sunday afternoon at the end of the conference, completely exhausted but floating on a cloud of optimism. Then her mother comes over to praise her daughter for putting together such an incredible weekend, and for being a role model for so many passionate young students. I am paraphrasing now, but in the course of the conversation she said something close to, “I think I could call myself a libertarian now. I just never knew I could be a bleeding heart libertarian.” It was one of the more beautiful moments of my time with SFL.

This is a fairly remarkable course of events. Sloane’s mother came into this conference with a lifetime of identification with the left and a healthy skepticism towards the topics at hand. But then she saw the student movement for liberty at its best, with the passion and international flavor of our community on full display. And on Saturday morning she attended the Bleeding Heart Libertarian breakout session and discovered that libertarianism and social justice are not only compatible, but complementary.

To me this is a fantastic sign for the BHL project. This woman is our target audience: intelligent, educated, compassionate, and deeply concerned with issues of equality and social justice. Over the course of a weekend her perspective on liberty changed dramatically, in large part thanks to the BHL speakers. From Students For Liberty and the whole student movement, thank you to everyone involved in BHL for the work you are all doing on these important philosophical issues. You are changing the dialogue and giving us invaluable intellectual ammunition in our battles for liberty on campus and beyond. It is deeply appreciated.