Mangaluru : Shwetha Bhandary P. finds it tough to hold back her emotions seeing her teary-eyed mother, Brinda Bhandary.

“It is sheer hard work that has brought my daughter to this level,” says Ms. Brinda, a beedi worker, while she is embraced by Shwetha for a photograph before media persons at the 33rd annual convocation of Mangalore University on Wednesday.

Overcoming odds, including financial instability, Shwetha completed her M.Com with two gold medals. “There have been days of hardship. My mother earns by rolling beedies and my father, Venkatesh Bhandary, is a storekeeper. My parents have sacrificed a lot to educate me,” she says, while acknowledging the financial support from her relatives.

Shwetha, elder among the two daughters, was one of the 100 candidates who were awarded gold medals and cash prizes.

Apart from getting assistance from relatives, Shwetha got scholarship all through her postgraduate course.

She is keen on supporting her family and has already been employed by the Indian Overseas Bank’s in Padubidri from June 10. Shwetha says she wants to pursue courses in ICWA (The Institute of Cost Accountants of India).

Karunya Shetty, an M.Sc. (Applied Botany) degree-holder, who bagged three gold medals, says the hard work put in in the last two years had paid off. Elated over getting the medals, Karunya says she will be pursing the Inspire fellowship programme funded by the Department of Science and Technology.

“I want to take up research in the plant biotech field. I have to speak to my guide and decide the exact area of research,” she says.

Karunya is the elder of three daughters of Shekar Shetty, an employee of Canara Engineering Works, and Shobha Shetty, a homemaker.