BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL

profile

Never Too
Old

"I had dyslexia since
my high school days,
but didn't really know
it back in 1982-83.
But I changed my life
around — and now
I'm a physician and
I'm very proud of it."

New doc heals self first,
overcoming dyslexia and
career change.

- Fred Berg

Fred Berg graduated last week from the

MSU osteopathic school at age 46.

Bill Carroll

Special to the Jewish News

red Berg always wanted to
be a doctor — dissecting
fruit and experimenting with
insects as a youngster, firing
grasshoppers into the sky on home-
made rockets and even playing "doc-
tor" on the block with his friends.
Now he is a doctor — at the age of
46, having graduated last week from
the Michigan State University College
of Osteopathic Medicine (MSU-COM).
If all goes well, he'll be a urological
surgeon at the age of 51. Not bad for a
mid-life career change.
And, by the way, he accomplished
the feat by overcoming dyslexia.
"Throughout most of my schooling, I
experienced a pattern of failure outside
the norm of my peers," admitted Berg,
a Bloomfield Township resident.
"I had dyslexia since my high school
days, but didn't really know it back in
1982-83. I failed a lot of classes and
got many Cs and Ds in others; I just
barely graduated from high school and
college with 2.1 averages," he lament-
ed. "But I changed my life around
— and now I'm a physician and I'm
very proud of it."
Berg even graduated with high
scholastic honors, garnering member-
ship into Sigma Sigma Phi, a national
honorary osteopathic service fraternity.
He chose a five-year residency in uro-
logical surgery, which began right after
graduation.
The dual residency is at Pontiac
Osteopathic Hospital in connection with

F

the Detroit Medical Center. "It's a highly
competitive field, but I've gone this far,
so now I'm going all the way," said the
energetic Berg, who often wakes up to
study at 4 a.m. and sometimes doesn't
finish until midnight.

Scrappy Fighter

Berg experienced the many traits of
dyslexia as a youngster. He was with-
drawn from the usual school activities,
had no friends, "a real loner," as he
describes his days at Orchard Lake
Middle School and West Bloomfield
High School.
But he got into Ohio's Bowling Green
State University — "the fruit fly capital
of the world," he said — and eked out
a genetics degree in 1986 by "basically
studying the genetics of fruit flies.
"But I really had a severe reading
and writing disability and I failed some
classes there — English three times
— and a professor sent me to the psy-
chology department for analysis. They
finally told me to just give it all up and
do manual labor for the rest of my life."
Berg had worked in a stamping plant
during the summers. He entered his
father's plastics business; then he and
his brother formed their own plastics
company for two years before selling
the firm. "Then I sort of retired in my
30s; didn't do much of anything for a
long time."
He and his, wife Carol, a manufactur-
er's representative in plastics, divided
their time between their homes in
Michigan and in Florida. They have a
daughter, Rachel, 9, who attends Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit in
Farmington Hills.

The Right Moment

Berg became proficient in scuba div-
ing and even was an instructor in the
underwater sport. "But I decided that
enough was enough; I was going to
become a doctor. Almost everyone
thought it was a joke for me to try to
return to college — at 40. They figured
it was a 100-to-one shot.
"But before I applied to MSU, I had
to attend Oakland University for two
years to take some refresher science
classes."
Berg gives "all the credit in the
world" to two people for the turnaround
in life: His wife and Julie Goodman
of Bloomfield Township, who was a
learning disabilities counselor at the
University of Michigan when he met
her. She now is a high school counselor
and English teacher at Detroit Country
Day School in Beverly Hills.
"I can't say enough about Carol's
support," said Berg. "She kept encour-
aging me and pushing me until I got
where I am today."
Carol added, "He was really discour-
aged at one time. But he pursued his
dream and kept at it; and now we're all
proud of him."

Staying Focused

Goodman calls Berg "remarkable
and courageous and a real pioneer in
overcoming dyslexia by accepting and
understanding the disability, then taking
strong corrective action."
This included sessions in reading,
writing and learning in what she calls
"three-dimensional reasoning."
She helped him use his strengths to
understand and dissect language struc-

ture, especially reading materials in
which he had a passionate interest.
"Many athletes with dyslexia have
reading issues, but no problems with
their athleticism," she says. "In Fred's
case, he should have no problems with
his passionate interest — surgery, and
should be able to 'read' his patients
well."
Berg spent two sets of one-on-one
sessions with Goodman, one before he
entered Oakland University, getting a
4.0 grade average, and the other before
he took the Medical College Admission
Test, passing it with flying colors. He
entered MSU-COM at 42 in 2006.

Drawing Plaudits

Keith Levick, who has been an execu-
tive business coach since 1982, oper-
ating Business Edge in Farmington
Hills, usually counsels people who may
be laid off from an auto manufactur-
ing job and want to make a transition
to a sales career or who would like to
advance more quickly in a large corpo-
ration.
"In today's highly competitive envi-
ronment, I tell them they've got to
always toot their own horn and get
noticed to ultimately be successful," he
advises.
Told of Berg's success story, Levick
is incredulous.
"By overcoming dyslexia, he con-
quered some awesome challenges and
completed a major revolution in his life;
he took a giant leap to re-brand himself
as a doctor.
"He should serve as true inspiration
to everyone." n_

IN

May 13 2010

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