Three days a week, Kennesaw State University students Emily and Calvin Ghasemi attend classes remotely from their home in Woodstock. The biology majors watch lectures online and receive assignments from their professors via email. Two days a week, they go to campus, doing their research and projects, hanging out with friends, participating in student groups and taking in as much of the college experience as they can.
The future physicians also receive some on-the-job training, of a sort. At home, they care for their mother, Mehrnaz, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), while taking on full course loads.
“It’s character-building,” Calvin said. “We just make sure our mom is comfortable, and we keep doing well in our classes. It’s difficult sometimes, but we manage.”
Emily said that, in addition to caring for their mother, she and Calvin also handle the clerical and administrative tasks surrounding her medical care. That means they spend much time working with medical care providers, and with their mother’s Medicaid service.
“We have an uncle who helps us out when he can, but it’s mostly Calvin and I doing the paperwork,” Emily said. “It’s all about helping our mom, and we’ll do what we can.”
The Ghasemi siblings said their mom set the tone for them as students. An English teacher before she retired in 2020 because of her MS, Mehrnaz held a high standard for both of her children and encouraged them to excel from an early age. Since enrolling at KSU, Emily and Calvin have made the dean’s and president’s lists, and they attribute their diligence as students to their mother’s inspiration.
“I would come home with a 97 on my test and be happy about it, and mom would ask where the other three points went,” Calvin said. “So I’d shoot for 110 next time. That has inspired me to do my best, no matter what.”
The two also have enriched their experiences with undergraduate research. Emily, who is active in the Muslim Students Association and the KSU chapter of the American Medical Students Association, said she has completed her research and will focus on classes this fall, hoping to graduate in December before spending early 2024 on her medical school applications. Calvin, a rising sophomore, continues his research in a lab this summer as a Birla Carbon Scholar, which carries a stipend that will help with school expenses. After that, he’ll continue to pursue research projects that will help his medical ambitions.
The two have set their sights on careers as doctors — Calvin wants to be a heart surgeon, while also making care more accessible to those who need it most. Emily would like to work as a general practitioner before shifting to teaching in medical school.
For now, the two continue to balance schoolwork and home life with an eye on the future. They said Mehrnaz is doing as well as she can, given the circumstances, and that they’ll continue to care for her.
“It’s hard to balance sometimes, but not impossible,” Emily said. “We know we’re doing the best we can, and we just want to make our mom proud.”
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