Touring your Options

Once I had decided that Penn State was going to be my home for the next four years, I got the strangest reactions from all of my friends and people that I told. None of them had ever imagined that I would want to go to such a large university. In coming to tour the campus though, I just felt that I knew I
would fit in somehow and succeed in my endeavors. I’m sure all of you are familiar with this feeling since you are going to be attending PSU really soon! Actually, I think one of the things that might have sealed the deal was my tour. I remember telling my mom on the tour that if and when I got accepted, I
was going to do just that: give tours of the campus. Since I had started school early for the summer LEAP program (which if any of you are participating in please look me up because I am going to be a mentor this year!!!!!), I felt so much at ease starting classes in the fall. It was a relief to not have scout out all of the campus in one day before classes started. I had heard of Lion Scouts in coming on tours of the school, so when there were flyers
around asking for volunteers to submit information to join, I excitedly put my application in at the
Shields building (home to the Admissions Office and Lion Scouts). After receiving an e-mail for an interview, I was pretty excited because there were hundreds of applicants. My interview went well, so I was accepted to be a Lion Scout! Giving tours of the campus is so much fun, even if it is raining or snowing out. Actually, I really like giving tours when it is snowing because I think the campus looks so pretty with a white blanket of snow on the ground. There is a route that the Admissions Office sets up for Scouts, so you and a partner just walk your group (normally about 15-20 people) along that route. Sometimes we even get to tour on the famous Penn State Blue Bus=)

Now for those of you who are like I couldn’t memorize where everything is on campus, I felt the same exact way so don’t rule out this awesome organization just yet. The admissions office prepares you really well setting up shadow and mock tours with older Scouts (who are totally amazing people). The best thing about it is that there are no two tours that are the same. If you forget something or skip over something in the tour script, nobody is going to know and you can add in your own personal stories to make the tour that much more fun! I am probably the most graceful, clumsy girl you will ever meet. On the tours Lion Scouts are
required to walk backwards. I am proud to say that I have never fallen down. When I do for the first time, I can say that I will proudly stand back up and laugh because knowing me it will be pretty funny. Partners I’ve toured with have fallen and you just pick them back up and keep on going. My favorite thing about giving tours is that I get to help prospective students see the all of the opportunities this campus has to offer. Coming into a new and very large school can be sort of intimidating, so in trying to ease their minds on the schools dimensions, they may look instead at the possibilities and doors that are open for them to succeed. It feels really good to when parents come up to you and says that you have done an amazing job compared to other schools that they’ve been to (remember PSU is #1 in any way they can be!).

If anyone wants to know more information about Lion Scouts, don’t be afraid to look for me at WEPO. It is so close girls, and you are going to have so much fun!!!!