Twelve wide-eyed Midwestern high school students crammed into the elaborately decorated room on the first floor of the McFall center on a snow-crested Wednesday afternoon, feeling nothing but the emotion of sheer anticipation.
Soon their feet would take them down a trail that students have maneuvered for over 95 years.
Erin Small would soon to be their trail expert, leading them all over campus and of course, to the right of the University seal.
Small is a student tour guide, an occupation in which she has held since the spring semester of last year.
She serves as a liaison between perspective students and the University.
Small, an Arizona native, said wanting to guide the students through the University had something to do with her blood.
“When I went on my campus tour at Bowling Green, it is what made me decide to go to this school,” she said. “I fell in love with the feel of the campus and I thought that I would do a good job showing potential students what Bowling Green has to offer because I bleed orange and brown.”
Small gives one tour every week, but claims that a lot more work goes into the preparation of a tour versus the actual tour itself.
“We first get into the office and put on our name tags and then we find out how many students and parents we will have,” she said. “We then sign postcards and get drink coupons, and then the student tour coordinator will introduce our group and we take them around campus for about 90 minutes.”
But as one could assume, being a tour guide comes with its share of interesting stories and Small has numerous vibrant stories that she has encountered while giving a tour.
She recalled an interesting story she encountered from a parent.
“We mostly get questions from parents because a lot of the students are a little hesitant to ask questions,” she said. “I got this question from a mom who asked what I did when I went to the bathroom. I had to ask her to rephrase what she meant, but it ended up being a concern about the sanitary safety of the residence hall bathrooms.”
Small has also had certain mishaps during tours that she said improved her ability to think quickly on her feet.
“One time during a tour, someone yelled an obscenity out of their car window while driving by, which wasn’t very fun,” Small said. “I was like, ‘We here at BG have a good sense of humor!’ I have also gone to open doors and they have been locked or they are wrong doors. I would say that would be the most embarrassing thing about my job because it happens to me a lot.”
Even though Small has given over 50 tours, there are still parts of the tour that she looks forward to that she considers her favorite parts.
“My favorite things to talk about are the traditions of the seal and the Union,” she said. “If you walk to the left of the seal, you will fail a class, so you always walk to the right. If you walk on opposite sides of the seal when you are walking with your significant other, you will break up. But legend has it that if you go and stand on the seal at midnight when there is a full moon, then you will get married.”
And now, the student tour guide group is trying to involve current students in the prospective student tours, according to Small.
“We are starting to do the BGSU chant during tours,” she said. “We encourage current students to yell ‘BG’ when they see us on a tour, because we tell the perspective students and their families to return the call of ‘SU.’ It’s just something fun that shows a little school sprit.”
Aside from meeting new students and being recognized by current students whom she gave tours to, Small is also looking forward to her new position of student tour coordinator.
She often reflects on how being a tour guide has impacted her life.
“My experience as a tour guide has been one of the experiences that has persuaded me to go to graduated school in the college student personnel field,” she said. “It’s an awesome opportunity to get involved and has really helped me mature and grow as a student and as a leader,” Small said.
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