From patient to advocate: Baylor junior fights for others with Crohn’s disease
Baylor junior Isabelle Morin is on a mission to become the person — the expert, the advocate, the champion — that she needed seven years ago when Crohn’s disease abruptly changed her world.
At Baylor, Morin has found her place. Here, she’s able to contribute to microbiome research in an elite Baylor laboratory, join national student leadership for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and advocate for her cause (both close to home in Texas, and on Capitol Hill in Washington).
Her journey to this point, however, took her places she hopes to help future patients avoid.
Diagnosed at age 12
Crohn’s disease is a chronic, incurable type of inflammatory bowel disease that impacts a person’s entire digestive system. For 12-year old Isabelle, early signs of the disease revealed themselves when she could not keep food (or even sometimes water) down. Her intestines were swelling to the point that she couldn’t eat, causing intense pain. Her weight dropped to 60 pounds, and doctors later shared with her she had been near death. On top of the physical pain, she had to navigate the accompanying emotional challenges and a labyrinthine path to the treatment she needed, all as a middle school student. (You can see more of her story, in her own words, in this video).
Over time, Morin found ways to adjust to life with a chronic disease and the accompanying interruptions that come with regular treatment. While in high school, she discovered the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and became involved with their North Texas Chapter. While participating in a community fundraiser, she made friends who had similar experiences to her Crohn’s journey and felt called to do more. At a gala in Dallas, the then-high school student shared her story.
“Afterwards, a young woman came up to me and told me I had made her feel hopeful and less alone,” Morin says. “That was when I knew that this was just the beginning. I had to keep sharing my story, because it helped someone else feel like they’d be okay.”
Finding her place at Baylor
Already deeply involved with Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation by the time she came to Baylor, Morin took further steps with the organization when she was accepted into their National Council of College Leaders, a group of students nationwide who work to increase awareness, raise money and provide resources for other students to navigate the transition into college. Last summer, she was able to advocate directly with lawmakers at the organization’s “Day on the Hill,” where she advocated for more treatment options for pediatric patients.
Today, Morin pursues her calling as a Baylor student. A public health major, she is involved in interdisciplinary research in the lab of biology professor Aaron Wright. Wright is a nationally recognized leader in gut microbiome research, and his work advances greater understanding and new treatment methods for individuals with diseases of the gut, like Crohn’s disease. At Baylor, Morin has discovered that research and advocacy are complementary ways of pursuing the same goal.
“Research gets me out of my comfort zone and helps me become more confident in trying things that I may not be an expert in,” she says. “It’s made me want to see how we can connect the research to experiences we see in real life for a large population.”
In addition to research, Morin — despite continuing to navigate occasionally disruptive treatments — finds time to serve as a junior senator in Student Government and enjoy membership in Kappa Chi Alpha, a Christian sorority. All of these experiences tie into a further personal mission that will drive her long after her time at Baylor is through.
“I will spend my life making sure that other kids have the resources I didn’t have, and understanding of their body and treatment options that I didn’t have, so no 12-year-old will wonder what they did to deserve that pain.”
Sic ’em, Isabelle!