Yesterday I gave my first tour as a Lion Ambassador, and it was certainly a unique one. Once I showed up to give the tour, I found out my group was all graduate students from World Campus. Instead of starting at Shields (the admissions building) we were starting on the steps of East View Terrace, and they wanted to go to the Lion Shrine which is not normally on our tour route. To top it off this was a solo tour, so I was the only tour guide for the group. It wasn’t an ideal first tour, but I think I made it work.

Since they were all World Campus grad students, none of the information about classes/dorms/commons was relevant to them other than as just fun facts to know. This meant that the vast majority of the tour consisted of history, lore and fun facts. Fortunately private tours like this one are normally a more casual environment, so I also spent time just talking to the group and getting to know about them. I also lucked out because Relay for Life was going on at the HUB. This gave me an easy topic to talk about and keep the group entertained, plus also served as a great transition into talking about THON.

All in all I like to think the tour went well, and we successfully made it to the Lion Shrine and the Creamery. While it was a highly unusual tour to give, it was one I enjoyed and it was cool giving a non-traditional first time. Looking back now that it’s been a day there are definitely some facts I need to brush up on, but that’s all part of the learning curve right.