By Adriana Torres, Digital Communications Intern
A four-day break between games in January meant one thing for Sun Devil forward Sai Tummala: the Medical College Admission Test.
Tummala flew to Dallas after basketball practice on January 12 for less than 24 hours to take the MCAT.
Months of studying between practices, games and classes paid off, as Tummala recently received news he scored in the 80th percentile, setting up a trip to medical school when he graduates.
“Every time I see Sai, he’s studying. We could be on the plane late at night returning, and there will be one light on,” Head Coach Herb Sendek said. “It’ll be Sai. And he’s not back there playing a video game.”
Tummala took four months to formally prepare for the exam, but he says a lot of the content was learned over the years in classes.
In the Barrett Honors College, Tummala maintains a 4.0 GPA taking classes like neurobiology, organic chemistry lab and organic evolution. He is also working on his honors thesis.
“Taking the courses that he does is challenging and rigorous enough for almost anyone, let alone when you have that kind of commitment with basketball,” Sendek said.
Tummala says his strong passion for both academics and athletics is what keeps him going.
“It’s tough. There aren’t a lot of people who are in my classes who have the same type of commitments that I do,” Tummala says. “But I think if that’s something you really want to do, there’s always a way to do it.”
Tummala worked hard as a pre-med major even in his redshirt freshman year at Michigan and his sophomore year at Salt Lake Community College before transferring to ASU.
He says he’s always been naturally good at science. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that both of his parents, Dr. Chandram and Padma Tummala, are doctors - his mother an obstetrician-gynecologist and his father a child psychologist.
“My parents didn’t really pressure me at all to go into the medical field,” Tummala says. “They saw the difficulty of it. It’s really hard with long hours.”
Both of his parents went to medical school in India and immigrated to the United States. Tummala’s mother was already a licensed doctor in India by the time she was 21 years old. But in order to be certified in the U.S., his parents had to work even harder.
Although his parents never pressured Tummala to follow their career paths, they did put a big focus on academics.
But being naturally tall and a fan of sports, Tummala wanted something to do outside of school.
“When I was around 10 years old, I finally convinced my parents to let me play organized basketball,” Tummala says. “From then on, they have been really supportive.”
They also provided the same encouragement to Tummala’s younger sister, Shilpa, who is a junior guard for the Harvard women’s basketball team this year. She hopes to be a doctor as well.
It seems to be a Tummala family thing to be multi-talented.
Tummala says being involved in sports actually intrigues him more for his academic passion.
“Being an athlete it is cool seeing the way your body works verses what you’re learning in the classroom,” Tummala says. “They’re really related. It really grew on me.”
Tummala hopes to be an orthopedic surgeon because he says he enjoys being around sports and does not want that to end after college hoops.
He wants to attend medical school after his May 2016 ASU graduation, somewhere in or near the state to be close to family.
Until then, Tummala has one more year of working hard, long hours on and off the court as a student-athlete.
“We’re incredibly proud,” Sendek says. “Believe me, we’re going to be bragging about Sai for a long time.”