International trips are YIRA members opportunity to travel all over the world. Every year, YIRA organizes, funds and administers several international trips, which give members the unique opportunity to travel to places all over the world. The trips are an opportunity for members to experience international relations and global affairs first-hand. Trips are run during Thanksgiving Break in the Fall, and during Spring Break. Each trip generally has 8 - 12 members, including 2 Trip Leaders, who spends several weeks beforehand organizing and planning the trip.
Trips
In the past, YIRA members have run a diverse range of trips; any trip bearing some relevance to international relations and global affairs is considered. Frequently-run trips include:
Election-monitoring trips: YIRA is one of the only student-run organizations to run election-monitoring and election-observing trips, including past trips monitoring elections in Haiti and Honduras
Political/investigative trips: These trips focus on exploring particular political issues through meeting with prominent political leaders, civic and youth groups and NGOs
Community service trips: These trips focus on development issues and members generally participate in grassroots community service activities, such as home-building or visiting local NGOs
Model U.N. conferences: YIRAs traveling Model U.N. team, MUNTY, travels and competes at international Model U.N. conferences, such as WorldMUN
