Why Be A Tour Guide?
I don't have anything close to what people often think of as a "tour guide personality." I'm very much an introvert who doesn't naturally gravitate to large groups, I'm not particularly "bubbly," and honestly, I have a really hard time projecting my voice the correct amount. So when all of campus received an email my first year winter inviting students to apply to be a tour guide for Dartmouth Admissions, my first thought wasn't exactly that I'd be perfect for the job. A few of my friends were also applying, though, so I did too, not really expecting much. After I wrote some brief application statements and completed an interview, I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a tour guide job!
Just to further exemplify what I mean when I say I don't have a tour guide personality, my parents recently told me that when I told them I was giving campus tours, they both thought it was something I wouldn't stick with for long. Going into training (on Zoom—it was April 2021), I dealt with a lot of nerves. While I had public speaking experience, I found the idea of memorizing an entire hour-long route with content to present to groups throughout to be pretty intimidating.
Once I met our Tour Guide Trainers, a group of older guides who are hired specifically for the task of onboarding new guides, I instantly relaxed; they were so excited to get to know us and help us in any way they could. While the tour route does have specifically designated stops and topics to address at each of them, I was happy to discover that each portion of the tour is highly personalized. Don't get me wrong—visitors will get the same concrete information on Dartmouth no matter what tour guide they're with. That being said, though, each guide is encouraged to use their personal experiences and involvements at Dartmouth as a vehicle for that information, illustrating a multidimensional and lively Dartmouth experience through their own eyes as a student, rather than just citing facts and figures for the group. We're also supported in conveying an honest picture of our own Dartmouth experiences; if you've had challenges here, you're encouraged to discuss those with visitors as well if you're comfortable! The idea behind a campus tour is to give visitors a sense of what life is like on campus, and the reality is that college can be hard sometimes in a lot of different ways. If there's one thing I learned during training, it's that the best tour is an authentic one, not one that's exclusively positive because it feels like it should be.
After I completed training, it was time to start giving tours, which I've been doing ever since (going on three years now)! Although I was much less anxious than I had been when I started training, the first few "real" tours were nerve-wracking all the same. No matter how many possible questions you're prepared for, there will always be a few that you can't anticipate, so it took a few tours to settle into the groove of thinking on my feet and providing helpful answers for visitors even when I found that I didn't know everything. That process, though it's never truly complete—I gave my 70th tour last week and still don't have the answers to absolutely everything—is genuinely fulfilling.
In this instance, at least, I proved my parents wrong: being a tour guide was something I stuck with after all! Not only is it a chance to learn about parts of campus and programs at Dartmouth that I haven't engaged with otherwise, but it's also a chance to reflect on the development of my own experiences through the lens of students in the same position I was in four years ago. My mindset, goals, and involvements have transformed so much over the course of my time here, and though much of the tour route and information is the same as when I started, the way I deliver that information has been through many different iterations, each influenced by different academic, social, and extracurricular circumstances of that particular period of my time at Dartmouth.
Whether you end up at Dartmouth or not, I enthusiastically recommend applying to be a tour guide at your school, even if you don't think you have "the personality" for it. Not only is it a great way to strengthen your interpersonal skills and connect with visitors from all over, it's a powerful tool for self-reflection and tracking your own development during some of your most formative years!