Upon receiving an MBE in the Queen’s Honours List in 2020, Fiona Drouet dedicated it to the memory of her daughter Emily, who was a Law student at Aberdeen. Since Emily’s tragic suicide in 2016 after suffering sustained physical and mental abuse on campus, Fiona has worked tirelessly to tackle gender-based violence and its devastating impacts on students.
Fiona established the charity EmilyTest to help safeguard university and college students from gender-based violence and improve the intervention and support available for those affected. At Aberdeen we are fully committed to the eradication of gender-based violence and have embraced the work of Equally Safe in Higher Education through our dedicated Gender-Based Violence Working Group.
Guided by Fiona and her husband Germain, we have also established three initiatives to honour Emily’s legacy, with support from alumni donations. The Emily Drouet Award, which will be awarded for the first time at the 2021 Principal’s Excellence Awards, will recognise a student who has shown extraordinary care and kindness for others. Also in Emily’s name, we are creating a summer internship within the University’s Student Support team and a student research scholarship, both focused on gender-based violence.
Speaking about the Emily Drouet Award, Fiona said “All Emily would want is for everyone to always show kindness and compassion to others, and seeing that recognised in this award couldn’t be more fitting.”
If you would like to support student-led projects to eradicate gender-based violence, please donate online now and choose 'Emily Drouet Fund' from the drop down list. Or to discuss further, contact Rebecca Buchan at rebecca.buchan1@abdn.ac.uk.