Town boss Kieran McKenna was presented with his honorary doctorate by the University of Suffolk at a graduation ceremony yesterday evening, while Ipswich Town Women’s winger Sophie Peskett was among those receiving their degree.
McKenna is one of five people who receiving honorary degrees at graduation ceremonies this week, alongside Boshor Ali, the chair of BSC Multicultural Services, historian Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch, Michael Read MBE, who has swum the English Channel 33 times, and chair of Healthwatch England and of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor David Croisdale-Appleby OBE.
"It feels fantastic, it’s a great honour,” McKenna said. "It’s a really important place for me now, and I feel so embedded in the community here, and of course the University of Suffolk is a big part of the community, so it’s a fantastic honour and one I’m really proud of.
"Both institutions have a big part to play in the community, and I think the link with the university is really important for us.
"We need to continue to try and improve, to innovate, and develop in all areas, and of course that is a big ethos of the university as well, so it’s an important relationship for us and one we hope will go from strength to strength and we can both keep developing, both keep helping the local community.”
Speaking to his fellow graduates, McKenna revealed that with his fledgling playing career ended at 22 due to a hip injury, he considered other paths he might take, among them teaching maths or becoming a physio before a conversation with a club medic changed his outlook.
"It made me realise that so often in our careers, so often in our ambitions, we are limited by our own perceptions of what is possible, by our own perceptions of what we can achieve,” he said.
"At that point in my career, to even become a community coach, a youth coach, would have seemed like an incredible achievement and would have been my absolute dream.
"If you have goals in life, if you have some things you are uncertain of, if you are not sure, go with your passion.
"Go with your heart, go with the one that means the most for you. Go with the one you love and chase it with everything you’ve got.”
He added: "Let your biggest setbacks be the ones that shape your character. I believe in those setbacks is where you show your true character and where you show the people around you your true nature.”
The London-born, County Fermanagh-raised 38-year-old, who joked that the players will have to call him ‘Doctor’ from now on, added a few now familiar words on the approach which is taken at Playford Road.
"Our mantra on the training ground is, follow the process,” he continued. "Focus on the process. You cannot always hold yourselves accountable for the outcome.
"We really try to take ourselves away from the result. Take ourselves away from the outcome on any given week and really try to focus on the things we can control.”
Also at the ceremony was Blues winger Peskett, the club’s first ever female professional player, who was presented with her first-class BSc (Hons) degree in Sport and Exercise Science following three years’ study at the university.
"Studying at Suffolk worked perfectly with my football at Ipswich Town and allowed me to move up to Ipswich for both of those things,” 21-year-old, who is from Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, said.
"Among my highlights at university, I would say, has been meeting various people of different ages and backgrounds that I would not have had the opportunity to become friends with if it hadn’t been for studying here.”
She added: "University taught me to enjoy learning something new, and looking back to where I was when I first started at the university I have grown not only in my career and the knowledge that I have now, but I have also matured as a person.
"When I first started, I didn’t believe that I was capable of completing something like this.
"Three years have passed, and I have graduated with a first-class degree, which makes me really motivated and I now understand to always believe in myself.”