Praticha Jagdish

Praticha Jagdish was a violinist in NSS for two years from 2007- 2009 and in MAYSO for seven years from 2009 to 2015 until she graduated and aged out. She started out as a 2nd violinist, then worked her way up to be a 1st violinist all the way to being concert mistress for her last two years of MAYSO. Throughout high school, Praticha also participated in Mankato East's orchestra and chamber orchestra as a violinist. She also played the tenor saxophone in the Mankato East band and jazz band and sang in its chamber choir. Her other activities included National Honor Society, Project for Teens, Link Crew, tennis, track, and soccer. She also had a lead in the Fall Musical In the Heights in 2014.

Praticha currently plays in the orchestra at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities as a freshman. She plans to become a doctor, possibly a pediatric cardiologist so that she can work with children: “I love kids, and I want to be a doctor.” To do this, she wants to major in chemistry, but Praticha still wants to somehow incorporate music into her career: “If I had that degree, I would feel more inclined to join an orchestra and keep music in my life.” Will she double major or minor in music? Will she pursue music therapy? Will she just join an orchestra? Like many of us, she doesn’t know, at this point. She does know, however, that music is too important for her to let go: “I started playing the violin when I was three, so it’s kind of been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.”

Praticha describes her time in MAYSO as 'interesting', which is concerning on a first glance, but she holds that it was interesting "in a good way." She made strong friendships in MAYSO, but she also recognizes how MAYSO can be a scary, new environment:

“A lot of my good friends are from music things. I have very close friends from the orchestra and from the musical. I started when I was in 6th grade. When we went on the breaks, I would just sit in the rehearsal room, and I wasn't interested in talking. Then I got the motivation to go and make some new friends... There's so many aspects that it makes you want to join to understand it.” 

She especially enjoyed Dr. Rodgers and his jokes, which she advises future students to “laugh at Dr. Rodger’s jokes because I never laughed when I was a senior. It was kind of a joke. They’re not that bad- kind of funny- [but he] says them in a weird way.” Besides Dr. Rodgers' awesome humor, she also describes Dr. Rodger's interaction with students in that he challenges them through the diverse music he chooses. She appreciates that Dr. Rodgers "knows how to conduct in a way where you're having fun, but you're learning music at the same time." Although she eventually made these strong friendships, she realizes that it's difficult to keep in touch "when you're all going different directions."

Currently, she hopes to graduate from the U of M in less than four years "majoring in chemistry and maybe something in music." She wants to get to medical school and become a doctor early enough so that she isn't 40 years old by the time she becomes a doctor. Despite this goal, she also plans to take things slow in and enjoy life. Although she's enjoying college so far, she "kind of bummed out" when she heard about MAYSO rehearsals starting up again: "Life goes by fast, and I hope to enjoy every second of it."