A physician in the making, a listener at heart
Shreya Tamma, a third-year medical student in Baylor College of Medicine’s Class of 2028, didn’t decide to pursue medicine because of one defining moment. The path was laid long before she was born, paved with a lifetime of stories—about her great-grandfather who founded a clinic in South Asia after the 1940s partition, and about her great-uncle who still runs that clinic, which is open to anyone in the community who needs help. In her family and culture, service has always been foundational.
While this inheritance shapes how she practices, Shreya is finding her own way to carry it forward.
“Medicine has been how I can bring together my drive to care for people while allowing me the privilege of listening to people’s stories, which also gives me the knowledge to be able to advocate for their well-being on a larger scale,” Shreya said.
Serving patients and telling their stories have guided her since the beginning of her journey and drew her to Baylor, which is known for its strengths in global health and narrative medicine. She has already been fortunate to explore these interests.
Since September 2024, Shreya has worked alongside Anita Chary, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine – Health Services Research at Baylor, in the emergency department at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, conducting qualitative interviews with older adults who frequently seek emergency care, many of whom are managing congestive heart failure. She asks what brings them to the emergency department and what they need from their care. Listening to them has driven real change, and this project helped launch new geriatrics consults in Baylor’s emergency department.
“Patient stories can be data that teach us how to improve our systems,” Shreya said. She presented the findings at the American Geriatrics Society conference in Chicago in May 2025, sharing these stories and advocating for the patients behind the research. However, the bigger lesson was hers, one she will carry throughout the remainder of her journey.
“I learned how to connect with people, how to give them a space to tell their stories and how to implement those stories to improve care,” Shreya said.
None of this would have been possible in the same way without scholarship support. Shreya is grateful for how much scholarships have helped ease the financial burden of medical school. She’s even more thankful for what else this support gave her: freedom.
“Having financial constraints lifted off of my shoulders makes it so that I can spend time doing the things that I like, such as [the emergency department] research.”
Shreya is grateful to the donors who have made it possible for her to pursue service-oriented work and experiences that will help shape the kind of physician she hopes to become.
“I just want to express deep gratitude for the support that you’re giving to students whom you’ve never even met,” she said. “The impact you’re making doesn’t end with us—it ripples out to all the patients that we’re going to care for now and in the future.” re for now and in the future.”
To support more students like Shreya, give here.
