Mother-Daughter Graduates Walk Stage Together at Wayne State

Sherry Kahari started Wayne State University as a mother-to-be and now, as fate would have it, both she and her daughter are graduating as members of the WSU Class of 2012.

“Ironically, my daughter graduates with me at the same time in the same place where I started 20 years ago,” Kahari, 39, said. “This is where I was 20 years ago. I was fresh and didn’t know anything, so to come back to a place where I was lost and to now be walking across the stage with my daughter–I think that’s a lot to be commended for.”

Fresh out of high school, a then 18-year-old Kahari had dreams of attending a university far from her Metro Detroit home. Then she found out she was pregnant.

“I felt like my hopes and dreams were shattered at that point,” she said. “I couldn’t go away to college.”

Electing to stay close to home, Kahari enrolled at Wayne State. She was heading into a final exam in December 1990 when her water broke.

“I had just parked my car across the street and put money in the meter when I noticed something strange happening to my body,” she said.

With her daughter not due for another six weeks, Kahari didn’t realize she was in labor.

“I stayed and took my final and then went home and took a nap,” she said. Kahari would go to the hospital later that night and welcome her daughter, Darcia Miller, into the world the next day, on Dec. 19, 1990.

The road back to Wayne

While Kahari was able to juggle class, work and family at first, after about a year it became too much and she left Wayne to find full-time employment.

Taking the odd class here and there, it wasn’t until she lost her job at American Axle in 2008 that she was able to return to school and complete her degree.

“As part of the whole downsizing, they gave us the opportunity to finish our education,” Kahari said.

Re-enrolling at Wayne, she began to work toward her bachelor’s in social work and soon after, her master’s.

Miller, who graduated from Dakota in 2008, joined her mother in the same field in 2010.

“I’ve always had a passion for helping others and it’s funny, I used to take those career quizzes and social worker, counselor or teacher were always in the top three,” Miller said.

Life after graduation

While her mother plans a career in medical social work, Miller’s long-term goal is to open a nonprofit for teenage pregnancy and victims of sexual assault.

That her daughter has not only earned her bachelor’s degree, but will begin pursuing her master's this summer is a source of pride for Kahari.

“With me being a teenage mother, she could have taken so many different avenues and I’m so happy she’s stayed grounded,” Kahari said. “As a mother at 18, I didn’t necessarily have all the tools I needed to be an efficient and productive mother and I did the best that I could with what I knew. I think I did an awesome job of raising her, and I’m just really proud of her.”

With her master's classes beginning shortly, Miller admits she isn't as excited about graduation as her mother, but what she lacks in excitement she makes up for in admiration.

"I'm so proud of my mom," Miller said. "She's been strict, but now that I'm coming to the end (of college), I'm glad she was the way that she was because she's made me into the woman I am today."

Kahari and Miller graduated from Wayne State on May 7.

Kahari's Mother's Day Advice: "Never accept no as an answer in life. Keep going and always stay focused. Persistence pays off."