It's Italy or bust: Student needs lira

Bay local Victoria Crockford is packing her suitcases to attend one of the most prestigious conflict-resolution seminars in the world, and you can help her get there.
Ms Crockford, a 23-year-old Havelock North local, has been selected from a pool of hundreds worldwide to attend the Bologna Symposium on conflict prevention, resolution, and reconciliation at John Hopkins University in Italy.
"Everyone who goes to Italy are all great students but from different areas [of study]," she said. "My unique take is I look at gender and how gender is mainstreamed in post-conflict law making.
"I studied Northern Ireland and looked at different impacts on men and women, about how their policies were generalised but now they are looking to make different laws for men and women."
She has already gained accolades for her work and said the opportunities given her at Havelock North Primary, Havelock North Intermediate and Havelock North High School drove her political science, geography and gender studies at Victoria University, where she also recently completed honours in international relations.
"Because I am not going with a university I'm not going as an affiliated uni student, I'm going as a graduate student independently," Victoria said. "I was given a partial scholarship of $1000 but otherwise I've had to fund it independently."
She was registered for the AMP Do Your Thing scholarship that requires online voting, but said there were not many avenues for her to pursue additional funding.
"In New Zealand, organisations can be thin on the ground, but sometimes there are private individuals who are interested in private funding. So if anyone out there is interested in what I'm doing and think I might be a good ambassador for their cause and would like to talk to me about it they could get in touch."
When Victoria returns from the month long seminar, she hopes to put her learning into practice and has already started organising a Pacific gender forum to be held in New Zealand next year.
To support Victoria, vote on www.doyourthing.co.nz by searching "Victoria Crockford", or email viccrockford@gmail.com to discuss private support.