UNL’s new College Diabetes Network hopes to raise awareness, connect students – Daily Nebraskan

Most people can think of one person they know who suffers from diabetes, and yet not everyone knows about the disease.

The University of Nebraska-Lincolns College Diabetes Network is setting out to bring awareness to the disease and to promote a supporting environment for diabetics. College Diabetes Network is a nationally Recognized Student Organization that got its start at UNL after Haley Schepers, president and founder of UNLs chapter, decided to bring it here in December 2016. The club was approved in January 2017.

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas stops working, affecting the production of insulin, a hormone that breaks down sugars in the body. Diabetics must use insulin shots or pumps to regulate their blood sugar levels all day every day. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that has no known cause or cure, although has some hopethere is a cure.

Schepers and the vice president of UNLs College Diabetes Network Ansley Alberts have similar stories about why theyre dedicated to diabetes. Both have younger siblings who were diagnosed at a young age with Type 1 diabetes. Schepers sister was diagnosed at age 12, and Alberts brother was diagnosed at age 11.

Its a complete life cycle change, so being a sister to someone with diabetes is really about being a support system, Alberts said. Its always on your mind.

Now, both students are making it their goal to raise awareness about Type 1 diabetes and to change the culture on campus. They want the club to be a place where students with diabetes can talk to each other. This is especially important for freshmen who have never lived alone with the disease.

Schepers said she hopes the group can get upperclassmen to mentor underclassmen on how to live with diabetes in college. This includes learning how to handle the drinking culture as well as eating in the dining hall and regulating their blood pressure.

Students are given this freedom and they dont know what to do with it, Schepers said, Theyre thrown into this crazy culture and theyre not regulating it, and people around them dont know how to help them.

Jacinta Benton, a member of College Diabetes Network, said the group has supported her by being a place where she can have personal interactions with others who have Type 1 diabetes. Benton was diagnosed with the disease last year when she was a freshman.

Benton said she quickly learned to take diabetes one day at a time. She said she hopes students will be educated on the science behind diabetes. Benton also said she thinks its important for UNL students to know what to do in a situation when a diabetics blood pressure is too low or too high.

Students should know how to check a students blood pressure and when to give more sugar if its at dangerous levels, she said.

Benton said that reaching out to other people with diabetes helps you learn specific accommodations you can get in college.

I would recommend to people who get diagnosed to do your research and reach out to people early, she said. If you do it early, later on in your life its simpler - not easier - but simpler.

Schepers said she hopes the group can get the word out about College Diabetes Network and attract new members. She said in the future she wants students who get diagnosed to get sent straight to College Diabetes Network so they can help with the transition.

The club accepts students who have diabetes, students who know someone who has it or students who just want to help the cause. Schepers said to go to their Facebook page CDN-Lincoln to learn more about meeting times and upcoming events like an awareness campaign and their first annual Walk to Cure Diabetes on April 2 with a fraternity on campus, Delta Tau Delta.

Schepers said there is also a GoFundMe page for the event if someone cannot attend but would like to help.

We are very close to a cure for Type 1 right now, Alberts said. I think that cure can come in my brothers lifetime.

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UNL's new College Diabetes Network hopes to raise awareness, connect students - Daily Nebraskan