A mother and daughter who both studied at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) at the same time have just received their final results while juggling a part-time job, being a county councillor and helping run an election campaign.
Toni Worman, received an upper second-class honours in Design Crafts while daughter Heather worked towards her own 2:1 in Politics and Government at the same time as being Leicestershire County Council’s representative for Ibstock and Appleby. They will both be graduating during this week’s ceremonies.
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Toni, 42, said: “I found out my result on Tuesday morning and I was absolutely over the moon with it.
“Heather was at City Hall at a council meeting so I sat here waiting until she got back and we told each other straight away.
“It all seems so surreal at the moment – only when I wear that cap and gown at graduation will it seem slightly more believable.”
The pair, both from Hugglescote in North West Leicestershire, originally found DMU when looking for universities for Heather. But Toni, who also works part-time at Lakeland kitchenware, was so taken with the facilities that she decided to study too.
“It has always been a lifelong dream to go to university and I never thought it would have been a reality.
“When we visited on the open day it was such a friendly place with a lively atmosphere.
“Design Crafts are a passion of mine and so seeing the work that people on the course produce I saw that it was everything I wanted to do.”
Heather, 22, said: “I always wanted to study Politics, but I also wanted to stay close to home and to the people in my division. I commuted to DMU for my first year and then moved to Leicester, but I spent most of my second and third years driving back to sort things out!
“I would say my political career helped me with my course, learning the theory I was putting into practice.”
Heather also helped run the ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the Labour candidate for north-west Leicestershire in the general election this year. She said: “Politics is an interesting game at times; I have won one and lost one! I will certainly do it again but it’s not something you can plan out like a ‘normal’ career.”
The busy schedules of the pair meant that they rarely saw each other on campus. Heather continued: “Luckily I didn’t see my mum too much but if she wanted me to come and see her I would. But there was no chance of her popping by on a drunk night out!
“Some of my course mates thought she was a lecturer which was highly amusing!”
And that might well be the next career move for Toni, who said: “I want to go into teaching in the arts because it was brilliant.
“As for people thinking of studying Design Crafts, definitely go for it. The lecturers and other students make you so welcome no matter what your age.
“They greet you like you are the same age and there are no barriers.”
But what of father and husband Christopher? Heather said: “Despite the fact he was supporting a house full of students he was surprisingly okay with it all. He was so proud when we got our results.”
Posted on Monday 13 July 2015