Cassie + Friends is proud to introduce our first-ever practicum student, Jillian Wickert. Welcome, Jillian!

Jillian is a student at the University of Alberta (U of A) doing a Master’s Degree in Community Engagement within the School of Public Health. Jillian not only has an interest in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and chronic illness, but a personal connection as she was diagnosed with JIA at the age of three! We hope you’ll take a minute to get to know Jillian below and the important work she will be doing to support a better understanding of the diverse experiences of JIA from the perspective of teens and young adults.

How did you hear about Cassie + Friends?

I first heard about Cassie + Friends through an acquaintance who had started a new student club at the U of A called Rheumours. It was a student group focused exclusively on raising awareness about rheumatic diseases. C+F and Rheumors have worked closely together over the past few years: collaborating on events, participating in research and establishing a solid community of support in Edmonton. (Check out Rheumors here).

What is your thesis about?

My thesis will focus on the range of JIA experiences and how varying experiences can affect other aspects of life.

While navigating JIA from childhood into adulthood, I often felt that I wasn’t represented in the research and medical information shared about people with JIA; I tended to either see ‘all good’ experiences or ‘all bad’ experiences represented but rarely ‘neutral’ experiences. This made me curious to focus my research on better understanding and representing the various ways that youth are both affected by and cope with JIA.

What made you interested in a practicum with Cassie + Friends?

I was really excited to work with a group that was not only closely tied to my thesis, but already had a great community they worked alongside to accomplish important, empowering work – that was Cassie + Friends! My hope is that this relationship with Cassie + Friends will be mutually beneficial, where we can learn from each other. In the future, I hope to work within the community of chronic illness and with organizations centered on community needs for this group -so that too made C+F a great fit!

What will you be doing at Cassie + Friends?

I will be helping with things like:

Tracking progress on the nine Cassie and Friends Care and Research Network (CREW) grants funded in 2022 and helping to launch the new call for CREW grants this year.

Supporting Cassie + Friends’ leadership of the PAVE study, a first-of-its-kind international study that aims to integrate large national datasets and patient/caregiver survey results to ‘Produce an Arthritis Value Framework’ (PAVE).

Assisting with the launch of a community survey to ask C+F youth, families and healthcare about their priorities and interests, what type of research they would like to see done and what support would be most useful to them.

Engaging directly with youth by assisting with the creation of profiles for the six incredible young adults chosen to be part of C+F’s first Youth Ambassador Program.

What do you hope to gain from your research?

I hope to help create better representation for all JIA experiences. This level of representation will aim to accomplish two goals: first, to enable all youth with JIA to feel accurately portrayed and included in research while also showing those yet to be diagnosed that there are more than just ‘all good’ and ‘all bad’ experiences in chronic illness; and, second, this research may be helpful for rheumatologists and others in the medical field as a source to understand their patient’s illnesses and experiences in a more diverse and inclusive way.

What else should we know about you?

When I’m not studying or researching, I love hanging out with friends and eating tasty food, playing board games, or playing tabletop roleplaying games! At home, I enjoy watching tv and movies, yoga, and playing with my two cats – Norma Jean and Hector.