It was the fall of her freshman year, and her dizziness, trembling, and weakness were getting worse. Shelby St. Pierre was on the verge of passing out for extended amounts of time, and the situation didn’t look good. Hamline was three hours away from her family, and she had no idea what to do. Finally in the spring of 2015, spring of her freshman year, St. Pierre got diagnosed with POTS syndrome, a poorly-known syndrome affecting the body’s ability to circulate blood.

“I felt alone and at a loss.” recalls St. Pierre. “It’s hard to talk to people and I had no idea what to tell them.” St. Pierre remarks.  Senior Ellen Brand was in the same place her freshman year. As it would soon become diagnosed, Brand had type 1 diabetes, and struggled with the challenges of being a new college student as well as treating her physical illness.

“So much else changes, it’s hard to know where the changes are coming from.” notes Brand. The shift in lifestyle that comes with starting college includes but isn’t limited to having one’s family live hours away, not having easy access to a doctor, needing to make one’s own doctor appointments, and needing to know what to tell medical professionals, professors and other students.

Having all of these struggles, St. Pierre worked last summer to form Hamline Chronic Illness and Awareness Support, CIAS, a student support group for Hamline students with chronic physically illnesses. Deanna Thompson, a Hamline professor of religion and the faculty advisor, went through a similar problem while being diagnosed with breast cancer.

CIAS plans to work with any Hamline student struggling with a chronic physical illness by connecting them with disability and health services, providing students with the tools necessary for self-advocacy, and the knowledge of how to explain chronic physical illnesses. “People often just don’t understand chronic physical illness.” adds Brand. The group plans to be serving Hamline students by the end of the academic year.