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One Dublin high school student’s wish to better support neurodivergent children and families led to the development and growth of a youth-led nonprofit aiming to do just that.
Emerald High School rising senior Nithya Ravuri founded Sevah Neuro to not only provide opportunities to neurodivergent children, but to change the narrative that they are somehow lacking because of a disorder.
In August 2024, Ravuri started shadowing at a pediatric therapist clinic, which led her to assist many families with neurodivergent children, including those with autism and Down syndrome. Ravuri said many parents would tell her that their children would be excluded from various opportunities and didn’t know what resources would best support them.
Ravuri said she noticed that this gap also revealed that others, including school staff or tutors, would tell parents of neurodivergent children that something was wrong with their child, implying that they needed “fixing”. Ravuri said parents needed additional support and wanted to prove the exact opposite.
“That was a really big turning point, because instead of pinpointing and blaming children, we started seeing what we can do to help the parents change their perspectives,” Ravuri said.
She decided this could be done through a nonprofit organization, which she founded and later named Sevah Neuro after a Sanskrit word meaning ‘selfless service’, Ravuri said.
Initially, Sevah Neuro started by hosting workshops locally in Dublin to create safe spaces for all children to put aside their differences and connect. This quickly expanded into Sevah creating its own curriculum and worksheets for children to interact and learn from one another.
However, Ravuri said Sevah also faced growing pains and struggled to remain stable and consistent. Obstacles oftentimes convinced her to stop the work she was doing, while others told her an organization like Sevah would never work. However, Ravuri persisted and used their words as motivation to continue expanding.
“The biggest challenge is believing in ourselves. In sophomore year, I really didn’t believe that I was capable of starting an org and maintaining it. It was a lot of personal growth going back and forth, because I was very insecure about myself,” Ravuri said. “What really helped me was just sitting down and telling myself, ‘OK, these are your goals. And right now, what matters is me achieving them for myself, not for other people, and keep going forward no matter what other people say.'”
With the help of another Emerald High School student, Aatmika Kapoor, Ravuri said Sevah was able to rebrand and gain stable ground. As chief operating officer, Kapoor took an interest in psychology and helped Ravuri to grow Sevah’s programming. The nonprofit soon also gained interest from undergraduate and master’s students, as well as medical professionals, who were able to help Sevah with creating webinar content and other guidance.
Through Sevah’s partnership with similar organizations, Ravuri said it developed more than 15 chapters across the country and internationally, including Nepal, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and India.
Currently, Ravuri said she is helping to run the Sevah Pediatric Neuroinclusion Fellowship, a five-week online summer camp program serving more than 400 neurodivergent children. While the fellowship runs over the summer, Ravuri said she hopes to also have programming in the fall and spring as well.
“We try providing them a safe space for them to grow as people and we teach them life skills,” Ravuri said. “I always wanted to start addressing this; giving them a safe space is one of my biggest priorities. But also, so other people, not just me, can learn from these children and see how talented they are. That was also a huge goal.”
Looking forward, Ravuri hopes to continue supporting neurodivergent children through Sevah. She said the organization, which now contains more than 500 members, has advocated for neurodivergence awareness and education at the state level and hopes to continue advocacy at a federal level as well.
Additionally, Ravuri said Sevah is working on releasing a book and app. In the more distant future, Ravuri sees herself forever being a part of Sevah, and wants to eventually open a school or trust.
“When people hear Sevah, they should always think about the work we’ve done and the children we impacted rather than the people behind it. And not just me, we have a huge team,” Ravuri said. “I’m so forever grateful for all of them and hopefully we’ll keep expanding and having passionate people join us.”
– Story by Kelcie Lee, Bay City News Service
