More than a vacation: Yale student groups travel with purpose
From music to model UN, student clubs embarked on international excursions over spring break
Daniel Zhao, Staff Photographer
By Sean Kim
As Yale’s residential colleges emptied for spring break, students scattered across the globe. While some returned home or stayed in New Haven, dozens of clubs and affinity groups embarked on trips from Niagara Falls to Greece, seizing the two-week pause as a chance to explore — and connect — beyond campus.
For Isaiah Suchman ’25, a member of the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs, the two weeks were an opportunity to tour throughout North America.
“This year, we’re visiting eleven carillons across Ontario, Quebec and upstate New York,” Suchman said.
The tour — filled with sightseeing and game nights in the hotel rooms — allowed Yale’s carillonneurs to perform at churches and universities, including the University of Toronto. With “only around six hundred total carillonneurs in the world,” Suchman emphasized the importance of strengthening the carillon network through these touring opportunities.
“Yale has a longstanding reputation for fostering carillon talent, and our tours not only expose our members to a cross-section of the carillon world but also hopefully allow us to act as ambassadors and create familiarity between other carillonneurs and our program,” he said.
Beyond the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs’ excursion across North America, the Yale Symphony Orchestra traveled together to North Macedonia and the Mediterranean region, playing at various venues and immersing themselves in the cultural and food scene of the region.
Keeley Brooks ’25, YSO president and violinist, highlighted the group’s collaboration with the Faculty of Music at Skopje University, sharing how the ensemble rehearsed “John Williams’ Star Wars” with the music school.
“It was a great opportunity to meet some other student musicians,” said Brooks. “A large group of the YSO went out to lunch afterward with a few of the Skopje University musicians.”
In the subsequent days of the ensemble’s trip, YSO brought their talent to multiple outreach concerts by splitting into eight different performing groups. Brooks shared how “students have volunteered to play in chamber ensembles” for various organizations.
On March 14, through these smaller performing ensembles, Yalies in Thessaloniki performed at Elliniki Et. Prostasias & Apokatastasis Anapiron Prosopon, a charitable non-profit organization also known as ELEPAP, which is committed to providing comprehensive support for children with motor disabilities and neurodevelopmental deficiencies. Students in Volos, Greece, also headed to ELEPAP on Mar. 17, and, on Mar. 19, students in Athens played at Elpida, a pediatric cancer treatment facility.
As Yale’s performing arts groups worked to build artistic connections internationally and regionally, Yale’s Model UN’s international sectretariats hosted conferences that fostered diplomacy through forums of discussion for high schoolers in Switzerland, Singapore and Taiwan.
Through the Yale Model United Nations Europe XIV conference, dozens of Yale students on the secretariat participated in executing a three-day conference between Mar. 12 and 14. Model United Nations delegates had the opportunity to hear from keynote speakers, including Minister Boris Richard, the current chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
At the same time as YMUN Europe, the Yale Model United Nations Taiwan XI conference was held from Mar. 14 to 16, which had around 350 high school delegates participating. Thomas Lin ’28, a director for YMUNT, emphasized how bringing “delegates from different backgrounds” was vital “in an increasingly divisive world.”
Lin’s committee, one of nine that students could participate in at YMUNT, focused on the “possible strategies for combating non-state military organizations.” Another committee, called the Cabinet of Taiwan Crisis Committee, simulated a response to geopolitical change.
For Taee Chi ’27, the under-secretary general of international delegations, YMUNT XI was ultimately a learning experience.
“Not only did it remind me of my love for teaching and mentorship, but it also helped me practice empathy, impromptu thinking and public speaking,” Chi remarked.
Pivoting to Singapore, Yale Model United Nations Singapore heard from keynote speakers that included Isabella Loh, a Chairwoman of the Singapore Environment Council and Vice Chair of Global Ecolabelling Network. With many experts like Loh, students discussed the necessity for fostering a more sustainable environment through engineering.
Supported by the broader Yale International Relations Association, these brief but impactful Model UN experiences bring the same thought-provoking conversations experienced inside Yale classrooms out into the world’s most relevant issues.
“Many Yale students eventually have the privilege to impact the global world, so it is especially important to develop regional sensitivity and cultural awareness,” Lin further emphasized.
Whether it was through influential discussions or creative instrumentation, the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs, Yale’s Symphony Orchestra, and model UN experiences provided students with a sense of connection during their spring break while on Yale-affiliated endeavors.
The Yale International Relations Association was founded in 1969.