‘It’s never too late’: 54-year-old former musician graduates from UW School of Medicine and Public Health
By Braden Ross, WISC-TV
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MADISON, Wis. (WISC) — MADISON, Wis. — It’s an experience many can relate to.
“My mom told me I had to play an instrument which I was great with, but I didn’t want to play the flute which was what she wanted me to do,” 54-year-old Kathy Eich recalled.
So at nine years old, Eich made her choice and picked up the viola.
“From there I was really lucky,” she said. “I was sort of tracked into a program at the University of Louisville to study with a professor there as her youngest student at the age of 11.”
Over the years, the choice she made as a little girl turned into a career.
“You have a dream, and you have this idea in your head of what it looks like, and then you just take the steps which, let’s face it, a lot of discipline, a lot of time alone in the practice room,” Eich said.
She played in orchestras and symphonies across the country.
“We worked with Itzhak Perlman as well as groups like Earth, Wind and Fire, so it was a really unique experience, and it was a lot of fun,” she recalled.
But then, something changed.
“One day, something snapped in me and I was just done,” she said. “So I went on to have my own kids and not work really in the field of music ever again.”
As her kids grew up, Eich made a different life-altering choice.
“I’d always loved science and I saw myself in healthcare, so it was a matter of picking that path,” she said.
At 46 years old, Eich decided to go back to school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become a physician’s assistant.
“It was weird. I sat at the front of the class instead of the back,” she said. “I had to learn to study because I’d never really applied myself in school before.”
Eight years later, she’s graduating this weekend, ready to start her brand new career at 54 years old.
“Sometimes I’d get these college kids saying, ‘How do you do it? How is it that you’re a mom and you’re doing this?’ and I always love that because I want them to know that they’re capable of making the same choice later in life if they want to,” Eich said.
After she graduates, she’s hoping to work in an emergency department or in internal medicine.
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Jaymes Langrehrjlangrehr@wisctv.com608-277-5241
