International Trips

Last Updated: Sep 17, 2009

Overview of International Trips

Every year, YIRA offers its members the opportunity to participate in an international trip during breaks throughout to year to participate in a project or activity that bears relevance to international relations or global affairs. This is one of the primary ways in which YIRA hopes to allow students to engage and experience international relations and current global issues in a direct, hands-on way. International trips are generally political or service oriented and past trips have, for example, centered on election monitoring activities and various service projects in developing countries. Each trip generally has 8 – 12 members, including a Trip Leader, who organizes the trip during the year. The cost of the trips is partly subsidized by YIRA, and can be co-organized with Reach Out or other Yale organizations, which organizes trips abroad.

Past Trips

Several international trips are organized every year, with a majority occurring over Spring Break. Past international trips have included:

2008/2009 Election monitoring trip to Venezuela (Fall 2008) Service trip to Ecuador (Spring 2009) Political, investigative trip through 6 Balkan countries (Spring 2009)

2007/2008 Election monitoring trip to Kenya (Winter 2007) Service trip to Georgia (Spring 2008)

2006/2007 Election monitoring trip to Mauritania (Spring 2007) Service trip to the Philippines (Spring 2007)

For information on international trips occurring this year, please contact Vice President, Filip Savatic, at vice.president@yira.org.

How do I lead an international trip?

Leading a YIRA international trip is a major commitment of time and energy, but is also an extremely rewarding experience, and a great way to develop important leadership, organizational, and communication skills. International Trip Leader Applications are made available to any YIRA member at the beginning of October. After submitting an application, all candidates are interviewed by the President and Vice President, and the YIRA Board makes the final leader selections after deliberation. After Trip Leaders are selected, selected international trips are publicized to the YIRA community at large, and an application procedure for trip participants is initiated.

How do I participate in an international trip?

YIRA International Trips and their respective Trip Leaders are selected in October. Towards the end of October, International Trip Participant Applications are publicized and distributed to the YIRA membership at large. After the application deadline passes, typically in early November, applicants are interviewed by respective International Trip Leaders, who make the final selection of trip participants, under the discretion of the YIRA Board. It is important to note that in order to be eligible to participate in a YIRA International Trip and to receive a YIRA International Trip Subsidy, all trip participants must staff both SCSY and YMUN.

Funding

Each year YIRA provides a partial subsidy to each participant in a YIRA International Trip. International Trip Leaders traditionally get a larger subsidy than participants. The YIRA subsidy, however, does not cover all trip costs. International Trip Leaders, with the assistance of all members participating in the trip, are required to actively search and apply for alternative funding options from Yale or other sources besides YIRA.

Find Out More

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Vice President, Filip Savatic, at vice.president@yira.org.