Home to more than a thousand nonprofits, Dublin has a spirit for charity – and it starts young. Co-founded by three high school juniors at Dublin Jerome High School, the nonprofit, RareLink, has a mission to raise awareness about rare diseases and build communities that support those affected.
RareLink
RareLink co-founders and executive members (from left to right): Saharsh Chalumalla, Saurin Sheth, Aditya Domakuntla, Umesh Ummalaneni, Arnav Roopesh, Aarush Pagidala
Close to home
Jerome students Aditya Domakuntla, Umesh Ummalaneni and Saharsh Chalumalla shared similar interests in the medical field, and in March of 2026, they decided to use their shared passion to make a difference. Ummalaneni explains that RareLink began as a way to inform people about lesser-known diseases that may be overshadowed by other illnesses but still affect local students.
“(One of our classmates) has Williams Syndrome. It’s a genetic condition, and it happens due to a deletion of chromosomes… (causing) missing genetic material that affects your heart, your blood vessels, your development and learning,” says Domakuntla. “Watching someone struggle with it really motivated us to do something to help them.”
The co-founders hoped to further their reach through major institutions such as the National Organization for Rare Diseases and the National Institutes of Health, but before that, they had to make a plan.
Organizing an organization
RareLink
Domakuntla, Ummalaneni and Chalumalla equally divided roles according to their strengths and interests. These included research, and building RareLink’s social media presence and outreach to organizations such as hospitals and businesses.
“Every week on Friday, we usually sit down and call for an hour or two and talk about what we did this last week,” Domakuntla explains. “In our task list, we have things like updating our website, outreach to professors (and) working on research papers. Everyone usually does the same amount of work in our organization.”
RareLink launched its first batch of Instagram posts in May, which included an introduction and case study. The students later secured a fundraiser with Panera Bread, interviewed a professor of human genetics and authored two research papers.
Beyond the nonprofit’s development and intricate schedule, RareLink’s co-founders have a web of other responsibilities.
“The hardest part wasbalancing online classes, because all three of us took summer classes and we had to balance that with RareLink,” says Domakuntla. “And we all play sports.”
Building an image
Along with balancing busy schedules, the group explains that building credibility as teenagers is challenging, particularly when reaching out to larger organizations. Despite their struggles with building partnerships, they’ve noted big accomplishments that serve as stepping stones in establishing credibility.
Earlier this year in July, the nonprofit celebrated its new status as a 501(c) organization and added three new executive members to help with proofreading and communications.
Since then, the group has been in contact with professors from universities such as Case Western and the University of Massachusetts, gained 800 followers on Instagram and had aresearch paper published in the Oxford Journal of Student Scholarship.
Moving forward, the founders have ideas for how the nonprofit can expand.
“I would say creating new branches of our organization to different communities or regions (is our goal),” Chalumalla says. “Getting more members in our community, then branching out to different areas to expand more effectively.”
“We want to be something where people can come and learn,” Domakuntla adds. “Boost awareness, boost research, boost funding for these diseases, just help as many people out as we can.”
Ummalaneni says people can support RareLink by donating to its GoFundMe, spreading awareness and learning more about rare diseases to better understand how they can help those affected.
Grey Romohr is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
