Canterbury’s seismic lessons ripple across the globe
Associate Professor Billy Osteen, Director of the University of Canterbury Community Engagement Hub, offered to help colleagues at Rice University,
Houston, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey. They’re now considering the CHCH101 course for the 2000 US students who have
been volunteering in the hurricane’s aftermath. Here, he discusses how UC has been paying it forward in post-disaster
areas across the world.
The University of Canterbury Student Volunteer Army’s proactive response to the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes led
to the creation of CHCH101: Rebuilding Christchurch, an academic course where students could reflect on their service. This included studying citizenship, post-disaster
response and volunteering. In six years, the course CHCH101 has evolved to include community service, has partnered with
more than 30 Christchurch organisations, and has been taken by over 1000 students. While the course’s focus is on the
post-quake Christchurch context, we’ve seen its impact ripple around the world.
Hurricane Irene in 2011
In August 2011, the upper east coast of the United States was struck by Hurricane Irene causing significant damage,
power outages and flooding. The area around the University of Vermont was hit hard and students immediately went out to
help with the clean-up.
American UC alumnus Dr Lane Perry (whose doctoral thesis was on service-learning and student engagement) and I contacted a colleague there and shared the course outline of CHCH101. She immediately took it, adapted it, and
offered the course two weeks later when the next semester started.
Illinois tornado outbreak 2013
In February 2013, US study abroad student Jessica Weston came to UC from the University of Illinois-Champaign and took CHCH101. For her final project, she proposed to set up a
Student Volunteer Army group at her US university. Several months later, in November 2013 much of Jessica’s hometown of
Washington, Illinois, was destroyed by a category F5 tornado. An hour away in Champaign, Jessica went into action and
started a ‘fill the truck’ campaign where needed items are donated with the goal of filling up a tractor trailer. She
was so successful that she filled up two trucks.
Jessica credits CHCH101 as the reason for this success, saying it empowered to help her hometown when disaster struck.
“My volunteering studies at UC allowed me to understand the value of volunteering and inspired me to seek volunteer
opportunities beyond the classroom and my time abroad,” she says.
“I walked away from CHCH101 a better person for many reasons. I fully understood the power young adults can have in
their communities and in disaster relief efforts. I understood how to take my talents and passions and contribute them
to a greater cause. The community experience also showed me how to be a leader and collaborate with others which was
very transferable to my career.”
Hurricane Harvey in 2017
Last month, soon after Hurricane Harvey passed through the Houston area, we were in touch with colleagues at Rice
University to share the CHCH101 course model and accompanying resources. It was a timely connection as they were in the
process of considering an academic response for the 2000 students who were out providing immediate relief. Rice
University found our information and experiences particularly helpful and we are now collaborating with them as they get
further along in the process.
In the days following the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, we were in touch with Tulane University in New Orleans which had
created a way for its students to be part of the post-Katrina rebuild efforts. It is now exciting to build upon that and
serve as a resource for others in post-disaster settings. Reaching out to other universities is especially satisfying as
we are paying forward the help we received from colleagues around the world when we were designing CHCH101 and
progressing community engagement across the UC campus.
By Dr Billy Osteen, Associate Professor of Community Engagement, Director of the UC Community Engagement Hub, University of Canterbury
ENDS