Mother, Son Graduate Together

BY: EMILY COAKLEY

The Herald Sun | Christine T. Nguyen

May 14, CHAPEL HILL, NC (HERALD SUN) — During Saturday morning's commencement at UNC, Edith [HG Urmilla devi] and Keshava Best will be sitting in different parts of the student section.

Edith Best has earned a master's and doctoral degrees in education; her son Keshava Best has earned a bachelor's degree in business. Edith Best said they hadn't planned to graduate at the same time.

Best, who lives in Hillsborough, consults for private schools around the world, training teachers and administrators to improve curriculum. She decided to go back to school in 2002.

"The best part about it was getting to be with other students who were also educational professionals," she said.

Her consulting work went on, with her working through e-mail and phone during school and visiting clients on breaks. She also had an internship at Hillsborough's Cameron Park Elementary.

At the same time, Keshava Best, 24, was attending UNC to study business. After graduating from the ISKCON School in Hillsborough at 14, he studied in Denmark for a year and traveled around the world. He came back to North Carolina and started his college education at Alamance Community College.

"For a long time I've wanted to go to UNC, but I sort of had to put things together to get in," Keshava Best said. "I didn't give up."

Keshava Best has been interested in business since he was a small child. His father had a computer business in Detroit, and Edith Best's family had started a large food company.

He started his first business in elementary school.

Edith Best ran a Hare Krishna school in Detroit before opening a school in Hillsborough in the early 1990s.

In Detroit, Keshava Best said he sold school supplies to students at the school, and eventually added a snack menu.

He also sold snacks when his parents hosted a movie night once a week, Edith Best said.

"That started when he was seven," she said.

Now that he's graduated, Keshava Best is planning to move to San Diego to work.

"I've learned a lot about getting things accomplished, just about having the determination to do it. Most people can get a lot done if they're persistent and just keep trying," he said.

He credits his mother's influence for his success. She taught him in Hillsborough and Detroit.

"She really did prepare me well for what was ahead in life," he said.

The two realized they might graduate at the same time around January.

Work on Edith Best's dissertation was going slow as she waited for survey results to return.

"I didn't have all the data in when I wanted," she said.

She thought it might be August or December before she graduated. At the same time, Keshava Best, who had hoped to graduate in December, had taken several classes and wasn't sure whether May graduation was a possibility.

Early on in the semester, though, he told her he was going to graduate in May, she said. She decided she would too.

"Then it gradually became more and more exciting," she said.

Edith Best was to participate in the doctoral ceremony Saturday, while Keshava Best's business school graduation is this afternoon.

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