Christchurch School to Represent NZ in United States in June

Four Year 8 students from Christchurch’s Selwyn House School will soon head state side for an International Future Problem Solving competition in Wisconsin.

Georgia Hawley, Grace Soong, Grace Cox and Madeleine Tilley, all age 12, will be presenting solutions around their competition topic of Emergency Planning, examining how central government, local government, businesses and institutions can better prepare for unforeseeable disasters.

Selwyn House School Principal Jane Lapthorn says the girls feel more than qualified to present on the topic, after what has happened over the last 6 months in Christchurch.

“With this topic the team can apply so much of what they have observed and experienced firsthand. They’ve also had meetings with both Sam Johnson (Student Volunteer Army) and Mayor Bob Parker which were exceptionally helpful,” she says.

Future Problem Solving team member, Grace Soong (age 12), agrees.

"Sam explained the differences between how the Student Army responded to the September quake compared to the February earthquake. One of the main differences he found related to the preparation and planning their approach as to how they would support people. After September 4th and by February they were aware of the challenges and were able to plan for these which made their reaction to the February quake faster and more effective,” she says.

The team also heard about Sam’s meeting with Hillary Clinton, where she told him why she thought his Student Volunteer Army was so successful. Madeleine explains.

“The US Secretary of State believed Sam and his team’s use of technology that many people could easily use and was readily available, like cellphones and Facebook, was the key to the army’s success.”

“The Student Volunteer army is now very well organised with online communication systems, online task management systems and a simple system to keep track of student skills that could be useful. It is interesting to note that the City Council, Civil Defence and the army are now looking at the systems that the Student Volunteer Army put in place,” says Georgia Hawley.

The Selwyn House team leaves Christchurch on Sunday 5th June with the competition taking place in Michigan on the 9th June.

The other South Island schools in the competition are Cobham Intermediate and Nelson College (senior division).