Each month, we’re featuring an advocate who engages with policymakers to ensure priorities that improve the lives of people impacted by Alzheimer’s and all other dementia remain top-of-mind in Congress.

While double majoring in biochemistry and Spanish at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sara Alhasnawi decided to take some political science classes for fun to pursue her interest in law and government. One of these classes included a state and local government course with an advocacy trip to the state capitol. With her class, Sara attended the Alzheimer’s Association State Advocacy Day. Inspired by this experience to get more involved, Sara decided to become an AIM advocate. 

“I went back the following year for my second State Advocacy Day. And then again the next year,” said Sara. “It just turned into something I’m really passionate about, because I knew how many people [Alzheimer’s] would affect.”

Alzheimer’s advocacy was not her first foray into advocacy. Early into her time at college, Sara joined an interfaith group that worked on creating a room to bring students from all different religions and backgrounds together to pray and spend time together. 

“Once you realize how many people you’re able to help out, it’s sort of like an addiction. You just keep wanting to do it,” said Sara. 

As a premed student, Sara also volunteered in physical therapy and shadowed a neurologist. “I started seeing all these patients that were facing Alzheimer’s. I never realized just how close it touched me. Eventually, once I got that conversation started, I realized that nearly all of the people in my friend circle were affected by Alzheimer’s,” said Sara. 

This past April, Sara’s advocacy journey continued with her attending the AIM Advocacy Forum for the first time. During her meetings with South Dakota congressional offices, Sara saw the impact of the disease and how it connected everyone. 

“I don’t know if this just applies to South Dakota or other states as well, but as soon as we got talking, we realized that there were already these little connections between everyone,” said Sara. “One of the staff members that we were meeting with knew someone else who was a neighbor of someone in our group. But more than that, once we got talking, you realize that they also had family members that were affected by Alzheimer’s. It joins everyone together.”

While Sara does not have a personal connection to the disease, when it comes to advocating for Alzheimer’s research funding, she has firsthand experience. In her junior year of college, Sara applied and got accepted to work on neuroscience research over the summer at the University of Minnesota, which included research on Alzheimer’s treatments and testing on hippocampal cells. 

“You have so many people that want to do research and not enough resources to go around,” said Sara. “What if the person who ends up finding the cure is some South Dakotan that lives in a rural community that really wanted to do the research, but just never got the opportunity to?”

When Sara first started her research experience, she hadn’t taken any neuroscience classes yet. “[Neuroscience] was the coolest thing ever. I wish I had gotten into it earlier, because I would have pursued a neuroscience minor if I had the time to take more classes. I got back from that research experience and immediately went to talk to the neuroscience professor.”

Sara was not able to fit in many classes, but she found a way to pursue her interest in neuroscience during her senior year. “When I look at the topic itself for me, it just clicked unlike any other topic that I was going through academically,” said Sara. “The topic always made sense. It was so fascinating, and the fact that there is so much out there that we still don’t know makes it such an interesting field to me.”

As she finishes up her first year of medical school, Sara is seeing how advocacy supplements her education.

“I think you need to be proactive about your own education. And I think advocacy really plays a role in that,” said Sara. “You just care that much more. So you educate yourself to make sure that you’re giving these patients the care that they deserve.”

Through advocacy, Sara has become close with her fellow advocates, several of whom come from rural communities and care for loved ones living with dementia. Hearing about how some of them have to drive three hours to a neurologist, Sara has become committed to increasing access in rural communities and training primary care providers to recognize and diagnose Alzheimer’s and other dementia. 

“In the back of my head, I really hope [more new treatments] make it to the hospital as I’m getting to become a doctor,” said Sara. “Knowing that at least there’s something to help patients out…and that I might one day be able to tell them that there’s a cure for Alzheimer’s.” 

 

During the Advocacy Forum, Sara really enjoyed the research panels and learning more about the disease. “I never realized just how many risk factors were out there,” said Sara. “I’ve heard some things from other medical school students saying that Alzheimer’s might only be covered for 30 minutes…I think [advocacy] helps you jump into your education a little more, and with being more proactive about what you learn.”

Sara’s interest in becoming a doctor is strengthened by her passion to serve individuals that do not have access to health care. 

“I think for a long time I’ve always looked up to my parents. My family’s from Iraq, and they went out to Yemen to go work in a very impoverished community. For the longest time, I always looked up to them for being able to do something like that.”

“I want to go out to do work that means something to a community that doesn’t have access to health care,” said Sara. “I want to be the advocate that these individuals wouldn’t have had otherwise, whether it’s refugee populations or a rural community. I don’t know what that’s going to look like in a few years, or where I’ll be, but I think that that’s one of my biggest goals. Even if I have to split my time between different communities, I really want to try and serve as many underserved populations as I can.”

Although Sara first got involved in the fight against Alzheimer’s through advocacy, she does not plan on limiting herself to only advocacy. “I started out with state advocacy day and then started hosting fundraisers. My next plan is for my friends and me to have a team for the [Walk to End Alzheimer’s],” said Sara. “I’m really excited to get involved in that, too.”

Not only has Sara expanded her own role, but she’s convinced friends to join her in the cause. “Some of my med school friends saw what I was doing and decided that they really wanted to try it out, too. So I brought a couple of them along to state advocacy day last year,” said Sara. “Then I pulled them along to help me with the fundraisers that I was doing, and they’re definitely on my team for the Walk, too. So I’m hoping that slowly it turns into my entire med school class. I’m just going to put that out there and hope that it happens.”

 

Becoming an advocate during college, Sara has seen the value of young advocates joining the fight against Alzheimer’s. “I think you don't realize just how much impact you could be making when you have a younger voice in the room,” said Sara. “Younger people really have to get involved. We’re getting so close, and we’re building up momentum. We just need more people involved.”

Learn how you can get involved with the Alzheimer’s Association and AIM community by becoming an advocate like Sara.