Lauren Prentice
Waikato University students Lauren Prentice and Tegan Summerville don’t know each other but they share a coincidental connection. Both were in Christchurch at the time of the February 22 earthquake and both were talking about the earlier earthquake when it struck.
Twenty-year-old Lauren, from Idaho USA, was talking to her new Canterbury University roommate about the September 4 earthquake and Tegan was commenting to a friend on the fact she hadn’t felt any aftershocks.
Both young women, who are now studying at Waikato, say feeling the ground move violently beneath them was incredibly frightening.
“It was really quite bizarre because we were talking about the earlier quake and then everything started to shake,” says Lauren. “I got thrown into a door but thankfully I wasn’t hurt and we got out of the building we were in very quickly.”
Tegan, 18, and from Hamilton but planning to study at Canterbury, had just finished lunch and was walking outside in the university’s grounds.
“We were talking about aftershocks and we heard this huge rumble and then it all happened. I thought someone had pushed me over but we all fell because you just couldn’t stand up.”
Tegan and Lauren are two of about 35 Canterbury students who have come to Waikato University as a result of the quake. Tegan is studying to be a primary teacher and Lauren is doing an engineering degree. Both plan to be at Waikato for just one semester.
“Waikato has been super helpful,” says Lauren who adds the whole experience was overwhelming. “I got a lot of support to work out my classes and it was sorted very quickly indeed. And all of the teachers have been really understanding about the whole thing.”
Tegan Summerville
Tegan has been particularly impressed by the options Waikato has given her. “People haven’t just said you have to do this and you have to do that. We’ve been given choices and that’s been fantastic,” she says.
The university’s Head of Student and Academic Services, Michelle Jordan-Tong, says Waikato is renowned for its pastoral care. “We’ve run an additional orientation for the new students, kept in touch with international agents, picked students up from the airport, found them accommodation for them and even delivered some personally to their classes in the first few days.”
Ms Jordan-Tong says all students have been made aware of the counselling services available to them, and some are using them. Staff will stay in touch with the students throughout the coming months, she says.