Jade Ford (Davenport ’16) is the president of the biggest organization on campus. Read more to hear about the Yale International Relations Association, Jade’s role as president, and more!
Name: Jade Ford
College: Davenport 2016
Intended Major: History
Hometown: New York
HC: What do you spend most of your time doing outside of the classroom at Yale?
JF: I am really involved with the Yale International Relations Association (YIRA) outside of the classroom, that’s where you’ll find me.
HC: Tell us more about working with YIRA.
JF: YIRA exists as a union of nine constituent programs held together by our executive board. Our mission as a whole is to engage students with global affairs and the international relations that shape them. Each of the programs approaches this from a unique angle. I’m amazed every day by the sheer sizes we work with, though. As the largest organization on campus, there are hundreds of Yale students behind what we do, and the high school and college students we impact beyond Yale are in the thousands.
HC: What do you do as president of YIRA?
JF: My role as president is to guide the executive board to really unlock the potential of all our initiatives and channel that towards enriching students’ lives. It’s one of few roles that sees the entirety of YIRA, and for that it’s an incredible experience. More than anything, that allows me to provide a cohesive vision to drive the organization. But secretly, the best part of the job is seeing just how amazing it is when a mission inspires college students to engage and put real work into accomplishing something larger than any individual.
HC: What events does YIRA host?
JF: All YIRA events for the Yale community are organized by our brilliant Board of Strategy and Operations – those range from the weekly symposia to our parties. Every year YIRA also hosts five Model UN conferences, two of which are on Yale’s campus, one in Budapest, one in Shanghai and in one Seoul. So when thousands of high schoolers in suits flood campus in January – yes, that’s on us. When it comes to travel, we also organize international research trips, and our Model UN team, which was my first experience with YIRA, competes at collegiate conferences worldwide. There’s our publication that comes out three times a year, as well, the Yale Review of International Studies, that acts as a platform for really sterling academic writing on global affairs at Yale, and our teaching program Hemispheres. This gives us the opportunity to inspire New Haven high school students and connect YIRA to that larger community. Nearly all of these programs could work individually, of course, but we choose to be an association because together we can forward each program and our common mission in ways that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
HC: Do you have any tips for others to manage their time as well as you?
JF: I’d say if you’re going to do something, make sure you can do it well. A lot of people diversify across activities, but sometimes it’s more important to commit whole-heartedly to what you feel is right. YIRA really swept me off my feet last year, so that choice was always clear to me.
HC: Why did you choose Yale?
JF: Aside from the usual mountain of reasons, I just couldn’t say no to going to school with my brother.