CALS freshman keeps community soccer fundraiser rolling

The Lurie Cup means many things to Rohan Amin '29: a celebration of soccer, a chance to bring his community together and a way to support the pediatric hospital that saved his life.

Amin's annual indoor soccer tournament has raised a total of around $30,000 over the last four years to support the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. The most recent Lurie Cup on Dec. 27 in his hometown of Corning, New York, was his largest event to date.

In 2025, the event netted $5,610 for Lurie Children's Hospital, and a matching program raised the value of the donation to $11,220. Additionally, $1,870 went to the event's venue, the Corning YMCA. The tournament also drew new friends from Cornell, who traveled from around the state to participate.

Amin - who was successfully treated for a rare disorder at the hospital as a toddler - conceived the tournament to fulfill a "personal project" assignment during his sophomore year at Corning-Painted Post High School. He has kept it going since, and he planned the 2025 event while navigating finals as a global development major in the Cornell CALS Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment.

"I'm most proud of this year because of that difficulty," he said. "When I got home for winter break, instead of taking a rest and just spreading out on my bed, I really started to get to work."

Amin came to Cornell because he wants to explore a range of interests, from real estate to affordable housing to global development, but the Cornell community also resonated with him.

"I grew up close to Ithaca and always loved its unique atmosphere," he said. "The diversity of people and perspectives here feels unlike anywhere else in upstate New York, and I knew it would give me a new experience while still being close to home."

Amin said the community has been incredibly supportive in his first semester, including showing up for the Lurie Cup. He recruited fellow Cornell students to compete, and they joined teams drawn from around New York state. Many of the nearly 90 participants were soccer players at the club level and in high school and welcomed the chance to play soccer again, Amin said, even a scaled-down version on a hard gymnasium court.

Claire Baek '29, a biological engineering major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, pulled together some of her former soccer teammates from her high school in Pittsford, New York, to compete in the 2025 Lurie Cup for the first time.

"It was really, really great to see lot of people from all different ages, and a lot of people from Rochester, Ithaca, Central New York and Western New York coming together for a really great purpose: supporting pediatric care," she said.

Amin doesn't remember being sick. He was too young. He said he didn't understand how fortunate he was to have received cutting-edge medical care until he was in middle school.

At 2 years old, Amin couldn't eat without vomiting. He lacked energy yet couldn't sleep and wasn't hitting developmental milestones. He and his parents visited doctors around the country looking for answers.

They finally determined blood wasn't flowing properly between his liver, stomach and spleen. Dr. Riccardo Superina at Lurie Children's Hospital was one of only a handful of doctors in the U.S. trained to perform a Rex shunt procedure to correct the blood flow. Amin had to undergo the surgery twice before it succeeded - the second time routing his left jugular vein into his stomach. After the second surgery, his health improved dramatically, he said. He played soccer from a young age and excelled academically.

He goes back to the hospital once a year for checkups, but now he also checks in with Madeline Zandhuis, development officer at the hospital's foundation. As the liaison between Amin and the hospital, she has offered advice and encouragement to support the Lurie Cup.

"When the hospital cares for a child they are supporting them for a lifetime," she said. "Seeing Rohan turn this journey into an experience of hope for others is exactly why we do the work that we do, and it means so much to have a partner in him who is raising awareness about these rare conditions and the specialized care required to treat them."