The Crohn’s and Colitis Young Adults Network Fellowship is a premier yearlong program for young adults who have been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease or ulcerative colitis. The fellowship, made possible with funding from the Helmsley Charitable Trust, offers the opportunity to learn from incredible speakers, create content, gain advocacy skills in areas from health policy to the latest research, and develop a lifelong alumni network of young adults with IBD around the world.
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Varada Srivastava, India
Varada is from New Delhi, India. She is currently a junior pursuing her Major in Biotechnology and Minor in Design. She was diagnosed with Crohn's at 15 and spent most of her high school in and out of hospitals. Besides being a full-time student, Varada is involved with patient advocacy through organizations like ORDI (Organization for Rare Diseases India). She also started the first chronic illness support group in her university. Varada also enjoys art, musicals, and movies.
She has been in remission for the past two years with the help of biologics. At the age of 19, she became interested in patient advocacy after moving away from home and realizing the lack of awareness of IBD and the subsequent lack of support for patients in India. After joining the IBD community, she realized that many IBD patients go through similar experiences. While living with this disease has not been easy, she has found wonderful friends and joined amazing communities thanks to it. As a CCYAN fellow, she wishes to increase IBD awareness in India and help others find a safe space to discuss their diagnoses.
Ibrahim Konate, USA
Ibrahim is an aspiring clinician who currently lives in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. He moved to NYC for his graduate studies and obtained an MPH in Epidemiology with a concentration in Outcomes Research from Columbia University. He has packed the last few years with experiences working in clinical research, international non-governmental organizations, and community-based groups to reduce health disparities in a global context. He is excited to apply his experience with health policy to demystify the insurance system and help young adults with chronic illnesses navigate the complexities of the healthcare landscape.
Having been born and raised in France to parents of Malian origin before relocating to the USA, Ibrahim has inherited a rich culinary tradition that represents his heritage and passions. He is an avid cook and baker but was disheartened to see that an overwhelming majority of recipes in virtual IBD spaces were derived from only western European cuisine. He wants to show that there are more possible types of food that can be explored by patients with IBD and that respecting one’s culture and having IBD do not need to be mutually exclusive experiences. For this, he will bring you all on a journey around Harlem and the rest of NYC to center foods, and by extension, the experiences of real people to help redefine our constructed idea of who is the “standard” IBD patient.
Finally, he hopes to bring an intersectional approach to advocacy by increasing awareness of IBD in his community and establishing dialogues with patients, caretakers, and providers to examine diverse identities and how they coexist with chronic illnesses.
Carina Diaz, USA
Carina Diaz is a digital marketer currently living in Austin, TX. She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and enjoys reading, writing, and baking. She was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease during her senior year of high school in 2012. Her other conditions include Sjogren's Disease, depression, anxiety, and various skin conditions due to inflammation. In 2017, her symptoms went from mild to severe, causing weight loss and extreme fatigue. She has slowly been improving since 2020 and had ileostomy surgery in May of 2021. Having to relearn her body has been a challenge, but finding an online support system has made a world of a difference in her journey. Carina has been through hospitalizations, minor surgeries, too many gastroenterologists to count, numerous medications, and has even traveled to other countries to help manage her conditions. She has learned how to be an advocate for herself through these experiences.
Carina knows the meaningful impact that having a community can bring and is grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of CCYAN! She hopes to help other young adults with IBD feel less alone. She's interested in the intersection of chronic illness and mental health, as well as working on the relationship she has with her body. Getting into the mindset of body neutrality has helped her feel more connected with herself, despite the constant changes that IBD can bring. She hopes to learn more about advocacy and meet fellow IBD-ers along the way.
Natasha Kacharia, USA
Natasha Kacharia is a junior in Stanford’s Computer Science Human-Computer Interaction program, with a minor in Creative Writing.
She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, her junior year of high school. Upon her initial diagnosis, she was grateful. She was not grateful for the disease itself but rather the invisibility of it. The invisibility gave her power. Power to disclose to whom she wanted when she wanted. Power to shape her story, the way she found fit. The invisibility was freeing.
However, her freshman year at Stanford, her disease took a turn for the worse. The constant cramps were a lot more painful; her insomnia woke her up at 2 am instead of 5 am, the hemorrhaging blood was a lot bloodier, and she was not only out of breath walking, but it literally hurt (temporary arthritis).
And, somehow along the way, the invisibility – the very thing that she found freeing – was suddenly suffocating. It was as if they were shackles around her, forcing her to smile, to lie, and to pretend everything was okay when nothing was.
She does not want to hide in the shadows anymore rather she hopes to spread awareness of her disease to make the world a more inclusive place. In fact, she is currently writing and editing a book, featuring a chronically ill girl of South Asian descent, focusing both on the mental and physical realities of living with such a deliberating disease.
She may have an invisible illness, but she is done being invisible.
Maalvika Bhuvansunder, Dubai
Maalvika is a 23-year-old adult living in Dubai. She is of Indian nationality, having lived in Dubai her entire life. She has a degree in psychology with a master's in Forensic Psychology from the University of Manchester, UK. She holds a keen interest in understanding the link between mental health and criminogenic behavior. She aims to pursue a career working with children who were victims of crime. She has volunteered for various organizations working with marginalized communities. She is currently working as an assessment specialist, conducting and analyzing neurometric assessments. She enjoys reading and dancing during her free time.
She was diagnosed with Crohn's in 2017. Since then she has faced lots of ups and downs in her life. With losing around 20kgs of weight to developing various food intolerances, she has been through it all. Her health had a brief period of remission in 2019, only to have a downward spiral. She is currently on Remicade infusions and has undergone a right hemicolectomy surgery in November 2021. Through this fellowship, Maalvika wants to highlight the importance of the link between mental and physical health and spread awareness regarding the complications of IBD in her community.
Mara Shapiro, USA
Mara lives in sunny Southern California with her 2.5-year-old Corgi, Morty. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine in June 2021 and now works as a medical journalist for WebMD. In her day-to-day role, she interviews physicians about their research and reads and writes up the latest medical news. Mara plans to return to school for her Ph.D. in medical anthropology in the next few years and have a future career in academia as a social scientist and professor. Mara’s academic research interests include the bioethics of iatrogenic harm, medical trauma, and trauma-informed care, and illness narratives.
Recently, Mara purchased a small RV and has started camping around Southern California with Morty the Corgi. Mara’s favorite hobbies are camping, riding her e-bike, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, and the occasional latch hook or paint by number craft.
Mara has lived with various chronic health conditions since the age of 13. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in July of 2020. It’s definitely been a rollercoaster, but Mara is so thankful for the amazing IBD community and all of her supportive doctors. Mara is very passionate about using her experiences to help others and is so humbled and ecstatic to be a 2022 CCYAN Fellow!
Fasika Teferra, Ethiopia
Fasika lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is a medical doctor and is passionate about advocating for non-communicable diseases in her country. She loves to read and watch movies until recently. Her son currently occupies all the time that she used to have for hobbies. She is the founder & CEO of Crohn's & Colitis Ethiopia and she also works as an Advocacy Associate in IYAFP.
She was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 2016 after 8 months of illness. She feels very fortunate that it was found early as that was not the case for most people. It took her a long time to come to terms with and accept her diagnosis after which she decided to start advocating for IBD to be given more spotlight in the Ethiopian medical field as well as the community. She is advocating for medications to be readily available as well as be at a reasonable price.
Her vision is to find a cure for IBD and she strongly feels that doing research on places where IBD seems to be emerging is perfect timing in order to understand and test some theories for the cause. As there is a lack of research in IBD in African countries, she is advocating for well-experienced researchers to shift their focus to regions where IBD is seen to be emerging at a fast rate and study the reason behind it. She is certain she will meet this goal in the near future.
Isabela Hernandez, USA
Isabela is from South Florida but is currently living in Gainesville, Florida. She is a senior at the University of Florida, obtaining her Bachelors of Science in Nutritional Sciences. She is planning on applying to medical school at the end of this school year and taking a growth year after she graduates. Isabela was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis at the age of 5 and is now 22 years old. From the ages of 5-11, she never was able into stable remission, switching to new medications frequently and rotating in and out of hospitalizations. At the age of 12, she was chosen for a clinical trial that thankfully worked and has now been on it for the past 10 years.
When Isabela entered UF for her freshman year, she started going through one of her toughest flares. At first angry with her stubborn colon, she decided to stop being angry at her body and start learning ways to take any sort of control over her disease. She became heavily interested in the world of nutrition and fell in love with the importance of food in IBD. For many with IBD, food is often equated with pain. She strongly believes that medicine and nutrition work hand in hand in the process of healing and aims to help others heal their relationship between food and their disease. While becoming fascinated with the world of nutrition, she also began opening herself up to experiences in the medical world. She joined a research lab at UF that studies the molecular and social advances of college students with IBD and wishes to bring awareness to the unique struggles that college students with UC or Crohn's Disease face on a daily basis while away at school.
As a CCYAN fellow, Isabela hopes to bring light to the importance of food for those with IBD and how it can work magically with the medicines prescribed by our amazing doctors. She will also focus on the mental repercussions that come along with this disease and how to combat them while in college. She is so excited about the amazing opportunity to share her story and experiences!