St Andrews student proud to have served on sports panel for a year

St Andrews student Fiona Waddell. Pic by Alan Peebles

The panel is a national programme that provides a platform to represent the voice of young people in Scottish sport.

Fiona Waddell, 20, and fellow Fifer Paige Boyle,20, from Kelty, have played a crucial role in helping to influence and shape the future of sport in Scotland over the past 12 months as part of their role as a YPSP member.

Despite the challenges of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Fiona, Paige and their fellow members have helped deliver a number of key projects including the creation of three working groups; disability sport, access to sport - overcoming poverty and school sport.

Other key successes include the launch of the young people’s sport podcast, taking part in development sessions for the Sportscotland school sport award, judging for the Young Scot Awards and creating vlogs and blogs for Young Scot.

Waddell, who is studying psychology at the University of St Andrew’s, said: “As we start to recover from the pandemic, I really hope we can continue to work as a panel to grasp the momentum from the positives of the last year; coming together as communities, adapting and getting creative, and especially the increase in sport and activity. It would be amazing if we can identify all the silver linings of lockdowns and work together to keep those going.”

The continued success of the Young People’s Sport Panel grants is made possible thanks to National Lottery players.