Lehigh tour guides: ‘Cheerleaders, not salesmen’

Tour guide Emily Brown, ’19, remembers her tour guide as “laid back” when she visited Lehigh as a prospective student.

When Brown went on her tour, Lehigh did not show a first-year dorm, which her mother really wanted to see. Brown said her tour guide took them into her dorm, and while they didn’t see an actual room, they were able to see the common areas.

“I toured like 25 schools when I was looking at colleges, and I really felt like the tour guide made a huge difference on whether I liked the school,” Lehigh tour guide Rena Zhu, ’19, said. “If I had a good tour guide, I liked the school. If I didn’t have a good tour guide, I didn’t like it.”

Brown said when she toured some colleges, bad tour guides turned her off to the idea of applying to certain schools.

Now, both Zhu and Brown are tour guides at Lehigh because they love Lehigh. Both women said they want to be that good tour guide for prospective students who are looking at colleges.

Lehigh tour guides are not paid. Each tour guide willingly gives up his or her time for an hour once a week to show prospective students what life at Lehigh is all about. 

For tour guide coordinator John Larson, ‘17, his expectations of college versus the reality were vastly different, so he said he makes it a priority to be truthful when it comes to presenting Lehigh to prospective students.

“You don’t want to be responsible for someone going to a university that they end up not happy at because of something you told them,” Larson said.

Zhu agreed that giving an accurate depiction of Lehigh is important so prospective students know if it truly is the right school for them.

But when it comes to portraying Lehigh accurately to prospective students, there really is no one way to do that, Brown said.

“For someone who has different interests than me, I can’t speak to their experience, I can only speak to mine,” Brown said.

With that in mind, the tour guide program looks for a diverse team of tour guides to represent the diverse interests of prospective students and the actual makeup of Lehigh’s student body when it comes to extracurricular activities, academics and even geographic backgrounds. Like the general Lehigh population, about two-thirds of tour guides are from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, Larsen wrote in an email.

When Zhu went through tour guide training, she said it was emphasized to share personal stories. Guides receive a manual with general information tour guides should know about Lehigh, but there is no script.

When training new tour guides, the No. 1 rule is to tell the truth, but there are better ways to tell the truth, said tour guide coordinator Drew Davis, ‘17.

For example, when tour guides are asked about Lehigh’s party culture and the presence of alcohol, the answer is generally the same: There are parties and alcohol if you’re looking for it, which is not a lie.

It’s no secret Lehigh has been ranked as the fourth party school in the nation, and tour guide Alejandra Silguero, ‘17, said there’s no point in trying to lie about it, especially when the information is easily accessible. 

“Of course you can’t say, ‘Lehigh kids black out all the time,’” Zhu said.

Larson said there are appropriate ways to handle those tough questions.

To combat Lehigh’s partying stereotypes, tour guides emphasize events hosted by groups like Lehigh After Dark and University Productions.

These tour guides acknowledged there is a stigma surrounding Lehigh After Dark programs on campus. Generally, students believe these programs are not well attended. However, Silguero, Davis and Larson all said they are genuine when talking about these alcohol-free events. They include personal stories about events they’ve attended and enjoyed, like last year’s Diner en Blanc and the silent disco.

Brown doesn’t attend Lehigh After Dark programs, but she said she wants prospective students to know that other communities do exist, if that’s what they’re looking for. She said she tends to be more frank about Lehigh’s nightlife if a prospective student were to pull her aside after a tour and ask about it.

When talking about Greek life, tour guides tell prospective students Lehigh is 40 percent Greek. As a member of Pi Beta Phi and Greek Emerging Leaders, Zhu talks about her personal development and the leadership opportunities available to her within the sorority.

On one of her tours, Zhu said the presence of Greek life on campus is “not overpowering.”

“I didn’t join Greek life, and I still have so many friends,” said Sabrina Bordash, ’18, on one of her tours. She also said the community is “very inclusive.”

Larson said at the end of the day, tour guides are Lehigh’s cheerleaders, but they are not salesmen.

An accurate picture of Lehigh sells itself anyway, Brown said. There’s no need to exaggerate or lie about things.

Larson said he’s had alumni on tours tell him he represented the university really well, which he believes is “a great indication of the accuracy and the truthfulness” of his tours.