Tanya Mitra (LA '10), whose joyful energy sparked team spirit at tae kwon do tournaments and whose nurturing personality bonded her to people and medicine, died suddenly at her home on Nov. 3. She was 24.
At Tufts, Mitra double majored in biology and German while excelling on the pre-medical track. She was in her second year of medical school in Newark at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Associate Professor of Biology Philip Starks, Mitra's faculty advisor at Tufts, said that Mitra decided to become a doctor at a very early age and stood out because of her sincerity and determination in helping others.
"My guess is that not too many of her medical school colleagues had tutored children and parents living in poverty or had volunteered with the aged since before their 12th birthday," Starks said. "Tanya was a caregiver before she knew that her future job would require it."
Mitra was born in Morristown, N.J., and while growing up her family moved to other parts of New Jersey and spent three years living in India when Mitra was in middle school.
Matthew Davenport (LA'10), Mitra's boyfriend, said it was her experience of witnessing widespread poverty and sickness in India that solidified her motivation to pursue a career in medicine.
"In terms of what exact medicine she would get into, she hadn't picked one yet, but it was going to be out there, in India or in Africa, with Doctors Without Borders or something along those lines," he said.
Muhammad Qadri (LA '10), a current Ph.D student in psychology at Tufts and a friend of Mitra's since high school, said her future as a doctor seemed pre-destined by her innate ability to care for others.
Qadri recalled a time when Mitra's father sliced his hand severely and, far from any medical facility or assistance, Mitra calmly took control, stopped the heavy bleeding and potentially saved his life.
A Tufts Debate Society member and Sharewood Project clinic volunteer, as well as tutor and researcher, Mitra only discovered her greatest extracurricular passion during her senior year when she joined the Tufts Tae Kwon Do team.
"Tanya was really a catalyst for transforming the team into a family," close friend and tae kwon do teammate Nicholas Bayhi said, emphasizing that Mitra epitomized the spirit of the tae kwon do club. "She was always the one who would scream the loudest."
"We don't know how, but she would always show up with an ankle brace and another ankle brace and a wrist brace," Bayhi, a senior, added. "Even though she was plagued with injuries all the time, she would still go in there and fight, and when she couldn't fight, she would be congratulating other people and cheering everyone on."
Bayhi recalled Mitra's first tae kwon do competition, which her parents attended in support. When Mitra was injured in one of the earliest fights of the day, her mother grew concerned and strictly forbade her from participating any further. However, in the middle of the competition, Mitra took a bold stance.
"She looks at her mom and says, 'No. I have to do this for my team,'" Bayhi said. "We were like, 'Whoa.' None of us would have been able to say that to her mother."
Mike Harb, coach of Tufts Tae Kwon Do, echoed Bayhi's sentiments.
"She didn't want to let the team down, and that was typically her," Harb said. "When she gave, she gave 100 percent with just so much love."
After finishing her studies at Tufts, Mitra remained an integral part of the tae kwon do team.
She attended every practice while spending the year after graduation working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she continued to return for most weekend practices even after moving to New Jersey for medical school, according to Bayhi.
Assistant coach Colin Murphy, a graduate student in chemistry at Tufts, praised Mitra as a "frustrating student" of tae kwon do because of her persistent effort to thoroughly understand the art.
"She listened to what you were saying, but then questioned every word of it," Murphy said. "She would force you to really come up with a good answer."
Mitra's thirst for foreign knowledge also attracted her to the German culture, and she spent a semester her junior year in Tuebingen, Germany, and lived in the German Language House on campus for two years, according to Director of the German Program and German Professor Christiane Romero.
"She was an ideal student from my perspective," Romero said. "She was very engaged in what she was doing, very intellectually curious. What I remember most about her was that she was the kind of person you were drawn to. She had this smile, this warm sparkle about her."
Mitra's closest friends at Tufts said she never fit into social norms, instead confidently establishing her own path.
"She was sure of herself and of her opinions, but not in a single-minded way," Julie Lonergan (LA '10) said. "She just knew how the world should work, and so she made it work that way."
Scott Schreiber (E '09), a graduate student in engineering at Tufts, said that even though she was small in stature, Mitra possessed a powerful charisma and never failed to make her presence felt in the room.
"She was a small bundle of energy and excitement that would be able to mother you and give you food," Schreiber said, describing a time when Mitra went out of her way to provide a meal for a classmate she had only just met.
Her friendliness had a magnetic effect on others and brought people together, Kahran Singh (LA '11) said.
"She always loved having people over," Singh said, adding that Mitra also hosted a late-night WMFO Tufts Freeform Radio show with roommate Alex Kittle (LA '10), in which the two were known to have fun playing favorite songs and at other times delve into philosophical discussions.
The Tae Kwon Do team on Nov. 6 held a memorial at Tufts for Mitra, where teammates each wrote messages to her on a wooden board, then ceremoniously broke the boards in martial arts fashion to honor the memory of Mitra, Bayhi said.
Mitra recently tested for a red belt in tae kwon do, the final achievement before attaining black belt, according to Harb. While he never had the opportunity to award the belt to her in person, Harb presented an honorary red belt for Mitra and her family at the memorial.
Mitra is survived by her parents Amit and Snigdha, and a sister, Trishna.
The cause of death at this time is unknown but is under ongoing investigation.
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