Outlander star Sam Heughan receives another honorary degree

Outlander season 4

There’s a reason that we’ve been calling 2019 the Year of Sam as of late. The Outlander star has been lucky to receive one fantastic honor after the next, with the latest coming today via the Dumfries campus of the University of Glasgow.

Earlier today, Sam Heughan received an honorary doctorate from the school, which holds a special place in his heart since it represents so much of where he’s from. He spent many of the formative years of his childhood in the region, and it is a place that he credits in the video below (via West Sound) for helping him to become the person he is. It was an inspiration for both his work ethic and charity work and it helps to ground him. While he may travel the world now as an actor, in his heart he’s a kid from a small town who had some big dreams he’s worked hard to pay off.

The honorary doctorate Sam received today is due in part to his work on Outlander (a great representation of Scotland), but then also a lot of the work that he has done through My Peak Challenge for some of his chosen charities — Bloodwise, Marie Curie, and Cahonas Scotland. He’s found a way to translate fame into something that enriches the world and he commits to it in a way that few other actors do.

As we mentioned in the title, this isn’t the first honor Sam has received this year — he was also granted an honorary degree by the University of Stirling earlier this year, one that is not too far from where Outlander films on a regular basis. That’s to go along with this year having the My Peak Challenge gala, him getting to tour the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (his alma mater) alongside Prince Charles, and of course all of his acting work. He’s been mighty busy, and both of these honorary degree ceremonies required careful consideration to the schedule. After all, Sam is in the process of filming Outlander season 5! That’s a process that will continue for the next several months, and he’s going to be at the forefront of much of it as you would expect. It should premiere on Starz at some point in 2020.

For more on what Sam feels about the honorary degree, check out the post on Instagram below.

Photo: Starz

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