James Dickinson

James has been involved in every step of the volunteering pathway (from a local, national and international level) at the University of St Andrews since he came to St Andrews as a student three years ago. The first project that he got involved in was the Saints Sport Support Project, working with students with disibilities and mental health issues to facilitate their participation in sport and work on a 1:1 basis with them on a sport activity of their choice to encourage these students to be involved in sport. James now manages this project and runs a team of 6 volunteers and pairs them up on a weekly basis with students that get referred onto the programme from Student Services. He has also been involved as a club committee member in the role of Treasurer and Club President within the Saints Waterpolo team. James has volunteered at school waterpolo outreach sessions in the local community on a weekly basis. He has also been voted in by the students to the Athletic Union Executive as the AU Treasurer 2010/11and AU Alumni Officer 2011/12 for Saints Sport. Last year, James was selected as a Student Tutor on the LEAD 2014 initiative working in conjunction with teh Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Where he was part of a team that facilitated a sports leadership conference for over 100 young people from across the region. James was recently selected as one of five St Andrews students to work out in Zambia on the UK Sport Zambia IDEALS project for 8 weeks. This involves working with Zambian coaches and students from six other universities across the country to coach football, volleyball, netball and basketball in Lusaka. To top all of this off, James was shortlisted and awarded with the Scottish Student Sport Volunteer of the Year award for 2011.