CEDAR CITY, UTAH -- The chaos of being a collegiate student-athlete can be tough to tackle at times. Attending classes and practices, doing homework and studying, traveling for games, and having a social life all compete as priorities.

Some Southern Utah University students not only take on this daunting challenge but also add extra responsibilities on top of it by preparing for medical school. In the midst of their SUU courses and competition, they have to study for and take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) as well as load up on volunteer opportunities to increase their likelihood of acceptance.

Three of these students — Alexa Lord, Dillon Petty and Hanslee Peay — will graduate this year and shortly move on to med school, pursuing their dreams of becoming doctors.

Alexa Lord - Women's Basketball

Lord, a five-year player on the Thunderbird women's basketball team, will close out the year, having started a career-high 21 games for the team. She served as a leader on and off the court, racking up 182 points and 168 rebounds in her final season.

In addition to her athletic accolades, she'll lock down a master's in business with an emphasis in healthcare administration. Although she's not yet sure what type of medicine she'd like to go into, having some expertise in business gives Lord the option to open up her own practice after finishing her schooling. 

With a bachelor's in biology and plenty of volunteer opportunities to back up her graduate degree, including serving on SUU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Lord's resume looks promising.

She recently applied to her med school of choice but won't hear back until later this month. Even if she doesn't get in this first time, Lord plans to use the tenacity she shows on the court to keep fighting her way toward her goals.

Lord's father inspired her to pursue her aspirations of becoming a doctor, although the profession's difficult lifestyle made her hesitant at first.

"I was unsure about going to med school at first because I saw the sacrifices that he had to make to do it, and I wasn't sure that I was really capable of that," Lord said. "Once I got to college, I realized I enjoyed working hard, and I wanted to push myself and become the best I could be. I felt that med school was all the things I was interested in doing, and it was something that was going to challenge me."

While the path to being a doctor isn't an easy one, being aware of the steps along the way is something Lord wishes she'd been more prepared for from the beginning.

"Research things out," Lord advised. There were a lot of things I didn't really understand about the whole application process and what med schools are looking for, so if medical school is something you're interested in, make sure you do your research and understand the steps you need to take to get there."

Hanslee Peay - Football

Peay's road to Thunderbird athletics proved a bit rockier than Lord's: a severe season-ending spine injury in his senior year of high school sidelined him from the sport he loves for a couple of years. After extensive recovery, he finally returned to the field, this time for SUU. He played as a defensive back in 14 games between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, fulfilling his hopes of playing in college and finishing his football career on a good note.

Using the skills he'll learn in med school, he plans to stay involved with football in a different capacity by serving as a team doctor.

"That would be my dream goal. Then I'd still be able to be involved in the sports world and help athletes out but also get to be a doctor at the same time," Peay said. "I think it'd be a good area where I can enjoy both those things in my life."

However, Peay also finds orthopedics interesting and shared that being a surgeon isn't out of the picture. He's been applying to med schools to explore his options further but won't get word back until the fall or winter.

Unlike many med school applicants who choose biology or chemistry for their undergraduate degree, Peay spiced it up by selecting nutrition. He hopes it will diversify him as a student and give him a helpful background to make him a more effective and well-rounded doctor.

The other qualification that Peay hopes med school selection committees consider is his volunteer service. He currently works with people who have Parkinson's disease three times per week at Rock Steady Boxing, a non-profit dedicated to using its fitness curriculum to lessen participants' symptoms.

"It doesn't really feel like service. It's just fun to be there with them and to learn their stories and stuff," Peay explained. "That makes it a lot easier to go and do that every week than if it was something where I was just going to check off a box and get hours."

Dillon Petty - Track and Field

Unlike his fellow med school-bound athletes, Thunderbird thrower Petty missed a large portion of his final season before med school. With Petty out for the season thus far due to a torn ACL, the track and field team lost a valuable competitor who boasts a distance in the top 10 SUU weight throws of all time.

Petty has used the time to close out his studies strongly and prepare to attend the University of Utah, where he's already been accepted to their School of Medicine. He shared that their program provides an excellent education in his passion for practicing rural medicine.

While he's already made it through the scary portion — applying and waiting to be accepted — achieving his goal of making it into med school was no small task for Petty. He had to take the MCAT while he was training and on the grind as a full-time student. He explained that the only way he got through rough patches like this was thanks to SUU Athletics and a lot of caffeine.

"I've found that being an athlete here at SUU has provided a mental break in some instances. It's given me a timeout from all the schoolwork and business that's happening and applying to go to med school," Petty said. "It lets me indulge myself in something that I enjoy, and then I can turn right around without a break and go back into the schoolwork."

Athletics may help him manage the stress, but Petty still has plenty on his plate, and he's learned that one of the most important pieces of being a student-athlete is finding balance.

"Part of it is understanding human nature and not overbearing yourself with so many tasks and responsibilities you can't do any of them well," Petty shared. "The ones that I do have, I try to put my whole heart into them."