A senior police advisor who struggled for years to admit her sexuality has told De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) students of the importance of “being comfortable in your own skin”.
Stephanie Morgan QPM, former Assistant Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, gave the inspiring address to the hundreds of students graduating from DMU’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.
Ms Morgan, who is currently policy advisor to Leicestershire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Sir Clive Loader, spent years keeping silent about her sexuality before finally “coming out” to colleagues at Hampshire Police, where she formerly worked.
She subsequently became a spokeswoman for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, held at Leicester’s Curve theatre, she told students: “Whatever you do, be yourself.”
She said: “It is only when you are comfortable in your own skin that you can really enjoy life. My career only blossomed when I came out of the closet. I could then be the same person at work that I was at home.”
Ms Morgan retired from the police after a 30-year career but returned to work with the Police and Crime Commissioner. She said she was “overwhelmed” to be given an honorary degree.
She said: “De Montfort really is a fantastic university and what I particularly admire is that it really is a part of the community. At any university you are equipping young people to be members of their community and De Montfort never loses sight of that.
“Academia is about learning to form an argument, learning to debate and really learning to learn. But it is also about learning to live, to do your washing, your shopping, to live with others.
“My university education taught me not to judge, it taught me life skills and it taught me to think. It is about testing the water, about learning who you are and how you feel as a person. It was definitely like that for me and De Montfort University really supports its students like that here.”
Hundreds of students graduated at the ceremony, collecting their hard-earned degrees from the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.
Tracy Driver, 46, was celebrating gaining her BA Hons in Community Justice, developing her career as a probation officer.
She said: “I’ve done this part-time over three years and it’s been hard work but so worth it. I didn’t even finish school first time around so to come back and get this degree feels awesome. DMU has been such an accommodating place with such good tutors.”
Posted on Friday 17 July 2015