Marjon University Honorary MSc Degree

EARLIER THIS YEAR, I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM THE VICE-CHANCELLOR OF MARJON UNIVERSITY…

It read:

“Dear Cal,

The University is empowered to confer honorary degrees upon persons who have achieved great distinction in their professional and personal lives and made outstanding contributions to the fabric of our society.

My colleagues and I have considered a number of nominations for this year’s honorary degrees and are unanimous in wishing to recognise your significant achievements by awarding you the Degree of Master of Science Honoris Causa, the highest level of award the University is authorised to bestow. The University wishes to recognise your contribution to environmental change, and in particular your paddles against plastic campaign, and believes you offer an excellent role model for our students and would be an admirable ambassador for the University.”

The first thing I did was call my Mum, a retired university lecuturer, to ask her if this was a real thing! The second thing I did, when she told me it was a real thing, was to cry.

I feel incredibly honoured to have been awarded this honorary Masters degreee. Not least because Marjon shares so many of my values. My first engagement with the university was at a Beyond Horizons event being held there to help give direction to teenagers wishing to progress into the outdoor industry. I gave the keynote speech to around 150 students, after which we enjoyed great conversations and networking with industry professionals. I felt at home at Marjon from that first moment I stepped through the doors.

The Vice chancellor also told me the following:

“The institution celebrates a string of recent good news, being named the top university in England for Teaching Quality, and in the Top 10 for Student Experience, by the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019; achieving joint 12th university in the UK for Student Satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2018; being granted a Silver award in the first national Teaching Excellence Framework; achieving a 35% increase in student applications; and latest governmental data (Longitudinal Education Outcomes) showing that teachers who train at Plymouth Marjon become the top earners in the South West and Wales.

Our graduation ceremony was one of inclusion, celebration and kindness. The atmosphere was supportive, caring and incredibly friendly. The vice chancellor’s speech implored the graduands to do whatever they could to protect the planet.

My acceptance speech took a similar theme, with the added request that the graduands also prioritised their own wellbeing by spending time out in nature, and as a result of appreciating how amazing that made them feel, continuing to support the planet that looks after them.

I felt so incredibly honoured to share the day with the graduates there who had clearly formed such strong friendships and support networks during their time at the university. Marjon is a small university - as were both my schools growing up, and I acknowledge how that can often lead to a greater sense of community and belonging. 

I feel really excited to further my relationship with the university, beginning with a Climate Change event on 11th November. The staff I spoke to on the day of my graduation all seemed to share my values, and those of my upcoming Vitamin Sea Project, so who knows where it’ll lead on from there!

Thank you so, so much to Vice Chancellor Rob Warner, and all the staff and students at Marjon for this truly wonderful honour, and for welcoming me into the Marjon family. I’m really looking forward to what we can achieve together!

My full speech is below.

It’s 4am. I’m in the middle of the sea in Scotland approaching one of the most dangerous headlands in the British isles. I’ve been on the water for 5 hours already, on my stand-up paddleboard, which is basically a glorified surfboard. I have a very narrow window of time to get around this headland, but all I have to navigate with to get there is a GPS watch and a lighthouse on the point flashing every 30 seconds. Apart from that, it’s pitch black. The body of water I’m in also happens to be a military firing range.

Why am I here? I’m attempting to stand-up paddleboard the entire length of the UK. It’s never been done before.

Rewind 2 years, and I was just setting off from Wembury, to paddle the entire Cornish coast to Croyde. I was expecting beautiful sunshine, calm seas, dolphins... how misguided I was! For three weeks, I battled through head high waves, thick fog, headwinds that had me going backwards, and angry seals.

I had moved to Plymouth in 2014, and took up SUP. I very quickly rekindled a deep love and respect for the ocean. But I was finding plastic on every beach I went to, after every surf, every SUP. I had to do something about it. So my mission around the Cornish coast was to talk to people about plastic, and bring some positive solutions to this enormous issue.

I know a lot of us will care deeply about our environment, and will have been quite affected by the issues it currently faces - climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the collapse of ecosystems, plastic pollution. It can feel incredibly overwhelming looking into the eyes of these issues and wondering how on earth one person can do something to make a difference.

One of my favourite quotes is from Jane Goodall:

“I like to envision the whole world as a jigsaw puzzle... If you look at the whole picture, it is overwhelming and terrifying, but if you work on your little part of the jigsaw and know that people all over the world are working on their little bits, that's what will give you hope.”

There’s another reason to protect our planet and our natural world. It is crucial for our wellbeing. Spending hours at a time on the ocean helped me to realise how much noise there is in our society, and how crucial it is for us to find time and peace in nature.

Another one of my favourite quotes is by John Muir:

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”

You may find that the next few years after graduating are pretty hard going, stressful, worriesome.

Always make sure to take time out for yourself, and if you haven’t tried it yet, time out in nature is an incredible way of rebalancing the scales.

I am no different to any of you. I have worries, anxieties. I have doubts about myself too. I am no superwoman - I do what I have to do to protect the place I love. If you’d have told me half the sticky situations I’d have got into on my expeditions, alone, no phone signal, hungry, exhausted, I would have told you I couldn’t do it - I wasn’t strong enough, I didn’t have the appropriate knowledge, skills or decision-making ability, and I would never have even set out from the shore. And yet when faced with those challenges, I found reserves of strength I didn’t know were there, just waiting for the opportunity to be tapped into. I want each and every one of you to believe me when I say, that strength is inside you too.

Equally, if you had told me 3 years ago, setting off from Wembury, that I’d be standing here today receiving this incredible honour, I probably wouldn’t have believed you either! Thank you so much, this recognition really means so much to me.

Huge congratulations to each and every one of you on graduating today.

Never forget your strength, and never think you’re not capable of creating a life that is meaningful to you, of achieving things you thought were outside your ability, of creating positive change and protecting what you love, with your own strength, your own abilities, and your own loves, whatever they may be for you.

I studied veterinary medicine at uni; my current trajectory is very different. Your degree here today doesn’t pigeon hole you into a career or a direction, but is your springboard into whatever career you find meaning in. In a world which is changing very rapidly, remember that you have the ability to change its course, and to follow a path that means something to you.

I look forward to hearing about all the amazing things you go on to achieve, and I really hope that a big part of that is against all odds protecting your wellbeing, and looking after the planet that protects you.