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Bringing It Home – The Saint Rose Blog

Tour Guide Life

tour guide 2

My super official name tag for being a tour guide- one of my proudest moments thus far was wearing it on my first tour.

Waking up at 6:45am is not something that the average college student wants to do, never mind on a Saturday, but it is something that college tour guides must do a handful of times each month. Giving tours is something that I always saw myself doing when I came to college and now that I am going into my second year of showing off Saint Rose I know why. Although my voice hates me after yelling about various aspects of Saint Rose there is something about showing students a glimpse at what their life could be that I find so rewarding.

Of course I love showing off all of the different buildings and talking about the great student to teach ratio (13:1) but my favorite part about giving tours is hearing what the students want to do and what interests them. I love when families are talkative but also like the challenge of winning over a group that looks more scared of me than interested in what I have to say.  It is then, when I break out the cheesy jokes and examples of my horrible math skills that families begin to see that I was once where they were exploring new possibilities and having no idea where I would end up. I tell them about how I was dead set on going to school in Boston (I am from MA remember) and how it took me three different visits to Saint Rose to see that it was the right fit- normally at this part of the tour I  put in a joke about having commitment issues. If a group is really into my story I even admit that my only reservation about Saint Rose was that my mom liked it so much and I couldn’t stand the thought of her being so right- but she was… and reminds me of that constantly. Being a tour guide is about way more than knowing when Saint Rose was founded (1920) or when Massry was built (2007)- it is about connecting with a family, showing them that the idea of college does not have to be a scary one, and of course showing them why I love it here so much and never go home.Without going into a long story about how I finally made the choice to come here all I am going to say is that I could not imagine my college experience to have gone better, the quad was a major deciding factor, and of course there being no teaching assistants or large lecture classes.

A Snapchat that my friend took of me giving a tour- note the tour guide hands.

A Snapchat that my friend took of me giving a tour- note the tour guide hands.

Giving tours is by far one of my favorite things to do at Saint Rose and it is simply because I love the chance of showing off what Saint Rose has to offer and help students see themselves as part of our community.

What do you think?

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