Best-selling author Kit de Waal was awarded an honorary degree by Kingston University on Thursday 20 July in recognition of her outstanding contribution to literature. 

Her debut novel, My Name is Leon, was selected for Kingston University's Big Read in 2017, a yearly shared reading initiative for students. Set in the 1980s, the story follows two young boys thrown into foster care after their mother suffers from a mental breakdown. De Waal visited Kingston in 2017 for a Q&A session as part of the reading project.

Reflecting on this experience at the graduation ceremony, de Waal said: "Coming back to the University after all this time and seeing students crossing the graduation stage with the world before them is a very humbling moment."

After working for fifteen years in criminal and family law, de Waal's work explores the foster care system, social issues and relationships. De Waal has also sat on adoption panels and helped advise social services on the care of foster children. 

Kingston University claims it has helped hundreds of care leavers and young carers thrive at university through KU Cares. 

Kingston launched KU Cares, a support package for care leavers in 2006. It has extended to estranged students and young carers, offering financial support, mentoring, paid work and networking opportunities. 

Collecting her award at the ceremony at the Rose Theatre, de Waal shared some advice and encouragement to graduates from care backgrounds. She said: "For anyone who has experience of the care system, leaving university can feel like a safety net has been taken away.

"Take the skills you've learnt from being in care - flexibility, self-sufficiency, budgeting, ambition - and put them to use. Don't apologise for where you've come from. Celebrate graduating and make sure employers know what you've overcome".