Meet Devan: 2024 Stewart Scholar and 2025 Scholar

Thanks to a generous survivorship program grant from Hyundai Hope On Wheels, twenty-two survivors were welcomed into the 2025 Children’s Cancer Cause College Scholars Program, representing both organizations’ strong investment in survivors and belief in their bright futures.

Each of these students receive a financial scholarship to help with academic expenses, and each Scholar commits to undertaking a volunteer project of their choosing related to childhood cancer advocacy.

Devan’s Story

Devan was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia when he was 20 months old.

He entered remission after a grueling treatment regimen that included chemo and an unexpected brain surgery. But he relapsed at age four and urgently needed a bone marrow transplant.

It never came.

“Unfortunately, mixed-race patients like me have only half the chance of white patients to find a matched donor,” he told us. “Friends organized bone marrow drives around the world, but never found a match. I got high-dose chemo and an experimental stem cell transplant instead. I missed a year of school. But I was lucky to survive.”

Devan is acutely aware that his survival was possible only because he was treated at a top research hospital with access to groundbreaking and life-saving clinical trials.

“My type of cancer has gone from a death sentence to a treatable disease — in wealthy countries, that is,” he wrote in his application.

Devan was born in Colombia, where the survival rate for many cancers is much lower than in the U.S. And he is quick to point out that wealth inequities still impact survival here in America, with kids in high-poverty counties at higher risk of mortality from their cancer or its treatment than their peers in high-income areas.

“I owe my life to modern medicine, and crucially, access to medicine,” says Devan.

In fall of 2024, he began studying Biophysics and Global Health & Health Policy at Harvard University.

Devan’s Advocacy Project

Driven by his own experience and understanding of global health inequities, Devan has partnered with a war refugee from Ukraine to create a U.S. chapter of Kids of Ukraine, a nonprofit working to raise awareness about the urgent medical needs of Ukrainian children with cancer. He is also the U.S. Outreach Director for Tabletochki, Ukraine’s largest children’s cancer charity,

As our 2024 Stewart Scholar, Devan met with Congressional champions, the Ukrainian ambassador, and the State Department, and he raised tens of thousands of dollars to help Ukrainian children with cancer receive treatment in the U.S.

Devan worked around-the-clock during the 2024 Congressional deliberations over Ukrainian aid to help make sure it passed and that it retained support for humanitarian and medical assistance. He also secured NATO security clearance for Tabletochki to partner with USAID, WHO, and EU funders.

“But much has changed in the last year,” Devan told us when re-applying for a 2025 scholarship, referencing U.S. cuts to foreign aid and a quickly changing political landscape. “New circumstances require new strategies. I now have invaluable experience and connections that will maximize my impact going forward.”

As a 2025 Scholar, Devan is responding to decreased government support for foreign aid by pivoting to private donors and non-governmental organizations.

By sharing the stories of patients and families, he hopes to raise more awareness with the general public and the media. He also shares those stories with both American and Ukrainian leadership: In 2024, he met with the State Department to seek technical assistance on blood transfusion in wartime, and with Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, to raise awareness about current pressing needs on the ground.

“I saw a chance to help kids facing worse odds than I did — children fighting cancer while their country fights a war,” says Devan about his motivation for this work. “But this is just a start; there is much more I can achieve.”