globe will be a time of discovery, service
Yale students will be fanning out across the world this spring recess pursuing activities that range from monitoring presidential elections in the West-African nation of Mauritania and building homes for the poor in the Philippines to working on development projects in León, Nicaragua, and assisting in the operations of an orphanage in Bulgaria.
The working spring vacation has become a tradition at Yale, where groups of students are more likely to assist in a development program in Africa or a recovery effort in New Orleans than to spend two weeks at the beach.
Reach Out programs
Yale College students can choose their spring break work/travel itinerary from a diverse menu of activities organized by student-run agencies. One of those, Reach-Out, will send 66 students with 11 student leaders on six trips this March. The organization, which began in 2003 and has since tripled its size, had 140 applicants this year. Reach-Out destinations include Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Tunisia.
The volunteer work organized by Reach Out is just part of its larger mission of building cultural and political awareness and laying a foundation of goodwill and influence. In Tunisia, for example, the program is as much about understanding the country's rich heritage from the age of Carthage to the present-day blend of Islamic tradition and modern institutions as it is about helping out in orphanages and health care centers.
AIESEC trips
The Yale chapter of the international student organization AIESEC is also a major resource for students wishing to travel with serious purpose. The world's largest student organization, with 800 universities from 97 countries on its membership rolls, AIESEC -- a French acronym that stands for Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales, or International Association of Students -- is also one of the oldest. Founded in 1948, the international organization boasts John Kerry, Kofi Annan and Mick Jagger among its alumni. The organization provides a network in which local chapters take turns hosting members of visiting chapters to provide cultural enrichment, global experience and a forum to exchange ideas. More specifically, participants in the exchange program have the ongoing mission of exploring and creating opportunities for student internships in foreign countries.
This spring break, Yale will send eight students to Turkey and seven to Peru via AIESEC. In Lima and Araquipa, the Yale AIESEC delegation will stay with host families. During their time in the cities, explains Drew Klein, an organizer of the trip, the Elis will make presentations about life at Yale and will engage in dialogue with their hosts about the "organizational practices" of their respective chapters. Later the Yale students will travel to Cuzco and Iquitos, to see the Inca ruins of Macchu Pichu and the Peruvian Amazon. The global peer network that AIESEC provides is, Klein says, "the best way to make travel a meaningful experience." More pragmatically, AIESEC has organized summer and postgraduate internships for Yale students around the world.
Delegation to Mauritania
In a separate initiative, a delegation of 15 Yale undergraduates will travel to Mauritania over spring break to help monitor the country's first democratic presidential elections since a military coup there in 2005. The group will arrive a few days before the election, and then divide into smaller teams that will travel from polling place to polling place on election day, recording any signs of irregularities in the voting process.
This West African nation is strategically important for a variety of reasons, says Whitney Haring-Smith, who has organized the trip with support from the Yale International Relations Association (YIRA) and the MacMillan Center. The country is one of three Arab nations that have diplomatic relations with Israel and it has been an ally to the United States in the war against terror. Though deeply impoverished, the country stands to gain from offshore drilling of oil that began in 2006. In 2005, Mauritania experienced a military coup, and was suspended from the African Union as a result. In response to international pressure, the new leaders of the government promised to hold presidential elections in March 2007.
"Mauritania represents a possible path forward to democratic practices in the Islamic Arab world," notes Haring-Smith, "and we're going to be there when this nation writes the next chapter of its history." The mission is being organized through the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, which has worked to prepare the Yale team for the monitoring. In addition to YIRA and the MacMillan Center, supporters of the mission include the George Frederick Jewett Foundation, the Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale Model Congress, and the offices of President Richard C. Levin and Dean Peter Salovey.
Hong Kong exchange
Eight Yale students will travel to Hong Kong during spring break as part of the Yale University-New Asia College Undergraduate Exchange program (YUNA). The program gives Yale students and New Asia College students an opportunity to host each other for two weeks, during which time the two groups take up a mutually agreed upon topic. This year's theme is "Ethics and Morality," and both groups did research on the subject before meeting at Yale in February. In addition to arranging for lodging for their guests with New Haven families, the Yale students invited speakers from different businesses to give their point of view on the theme subject.
When the Yale students and two advisers from the program visit Hong Kong during spring break, they will attend a large public symposium on ethics and morality arranged by their student hosts at New Asia College.
Sponsored by Yale-China Association and the Council on East Asian Studies, the program has been supporting the unique exchange for almost 15 years.
Professional students
Students at Yale's professional schools will be spreading across the globe during spring break. To cite just one notable example, 24 Yale School of Management M.B.A. students will spend two weeks in Brazil performing pro bono consulting work for socially focused organizations. The students are members of the school's Global Social Enterprise Club, which was founded in 2004 with the goal of making a positive social impact in developing countries.
--By Dorie Baker
T H I S
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Major gift to fund construction of Loria Center for the History of Art
Scientists determine ancient Peruvian citadel was earliest solar . . .
For students, spring break will be a time of discovery, serviceSOM travel goes green
Researchers discover treatment for lethal kidney disease
Professor and trustee awarded India's highest civilian honor
Study implicates gene defect in early heart disease
Marvin Chun and John Hollander are honored by Phi Beta Kappa
Yale will help build DNA databank to further research on autism
Scientists clarify why colliding ice blocks interlace
Negative health effects of soft drink consumption confirmed in study
Exhibit looks at contributions of early women healers
Yale nurses Linda Pellico and Geralyn Spollett are lauded . . .
Past, present and future Elis are named Soros Fellows
Study finds that yearning -- not disbelief -- is defining feature of grief
Record number of city students taking part in annual science fair on campus
Conference to explore new collaborations with Turkey
IN MEMORIAM
B. Davie Napier: Former Yale trustee, professor and preacher
James B. Crowley: Specialist in the history of modern Japan
Paul Sevier Minear: A leading scholar of the New Testament
Kathryn Perrone: Assistant to the president
Campus Notes
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