A Tauranga doctoral student will speak at a United States conference about how youth organise themselves in crisis like the Rena grounding after winning the prestigious Fulbright NZ Travel Award.

University of Waikato student Sarah Lockwood is using the grounding of the cargo ship Rena and subsequent oil spill in Tauranga waters off as an example of why and how GenY volunteers organise themselves and communicate when crisis strikes.

Sarah Lockwood has been awarded the Fulbright NZ Travel Award.

As part of her studies, Sarah has been awarded the Fulbright scholarship to travel to the United States to speak in Chicago and visit various universities.

Sarah says the opportunity to visit the US is significant as there is so little research in this particular field.

'The bulk of research is based in the US so it will be interesting for them to hear the New Zealand perspective and to collaborate on what we have learnt.”

Sarah's research into the Rena response has found that GenY – or young people aged 16-29-years – who volunteer are motivated, enthusiastic and innovative, and respond in unique ways, often away from the confines of official response efforts.

'As a GenY volunteer during the Rena crisis myself, I was in a unique position to find out directly from other GenY volunteers what this form of crisis volunteering meant, and how their social networking, use of technology and speed, impacted the way they responded,” says Sarah.

'Youth are naturally spontaneous and socially connected so things often get done more quickly. This kind of response is well suited to the changing and unpredictable demands experienced during crises".

Sarah says this "match made in crisis" can present challenges and tensions between youth volunteers and official response parties, as flexible responses are not always conducive with necessary crisis procedures such as health and safety.

"As a result, youth volunteers are not mentioned in Civil Defence Emergency Management policies throughout the world, despite global evidence of their effective response efforts".

Sarah hopes her research will inform local government how to better utilise GenY volunteers so that communities can more effectively respond to crises. Part of this research will involve working alongside others in the US who witnessed similar GenY responses following Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

Sarah will travel to Chicago in November 2014 to speak at the National Communications Association Convention and will also visit a number of universities to collaborate on research. As well as her Fulbright Scholarship, Sarah has been awarded a Claude McCarthy Fellowship which will help fund her US speaking tour.

The Fulbright Program promotes collaboration between US academics and professionals and their counterparts around the world.