On Tuesday afternoon (May 19th) St Mirren players Mark Howard and Andy Dorman attended a question and answer session for 1st to 3rd year pupils at St Andrews Academy in Paisley.

Despite Andy and Mark being lucky enough to go on and make a career as football players they were at St Andrews to talk about their education and what they did at school. Andy has a degree earned at Boston University in the USA and Mark is educated up to 'A' Level standard, which is roughly the same as the Highers here in Scotland.

Community Coach Frazer Robertson arranged the visit of the two players to St Andrews Academy and he believes that while it is good for the pupils to meet the local sporting stars the question and answer sessions have a far more important message.

Mark Howard gets quizzed by one of the pupils. (St Andrews Academy - Q&A Session - 19-05-2009)

Frazer explained, "Andy and Mark were at St Andrews Academy to put across the message that it is important to stick in well at school and ultimately get a good education and qualifications behind you.

"They also highlighted that even though they are now footballers they realise the importance of their education as it is something that they may well have to fall back on in later years after their football careers are over."

The questions fired at the players covered several topics but obviously the main ones were about education, and of course, football.

Andy Dorman answers one of the many questions fired at him. (St Andrews Academy - Q&A Session - 19-05-2009)

Frazer said, "The pupils asked questions like, 'what subjects did Andy and Mark like' and 'what were they good at', etc. They also asked them questions away from education, mostly stuff about football, which the guys were more than happy to chat about too."

The Question and Answer sessions have been running for a while now and going by the positive response that Frazer has been receiving they will be doing so for a while yet.

He said, "Andy also did a similar session at Linwood High a few weeks ago so it is something that is proving very popular with the local schools and pupils."

 

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