2015-2016 Head Tour Guides Selected, Trained

In late May of 2015, the Academy’s admissions office announced that nine seniors had been selected as this academic year’s head tour guides. Seniors Helena Guenther, Will Haering, Chris Lee, Holly MacAlpine, Maegan Moriarty, Cam Rider, Meghan Tanguay, Timothy Wu and Cesar Zamudio will be leading the Academy’s tour guides in yet another admissions season.

According to Admissions Visit Facilitator Deborah Waleryszak, the head tour guide’s responsibilities encompass the following: recruiting new guides to the admissions program, training new guides, accompanying the admissions officers to represent Exeter at secondary school fairs and hosting prospective students.

“We wanted new guides who were passionate about Exeter, people who essentially would be the face of the Admissions Office for the next school year.”

Due to such rigorous requirements, the selection process for head tour guide took over three weeks. First, an application was sent to all active upper tour guides. As the applications flooded in, a selection committee composed of Waleryszak, Director of Admissions Michael Gary, additional admissions officers and the former head tour guides reviewed the applications and established a group of finalists. Next, the selection committee solicited the advice of each applicant’s respective advisor and submitted ‘non-advisor’ recommender. The finalists were evaluated for number of tours given, other leadership positions on campus, reliability, quality of tours and level of commitment. Ultimately, the committee put the decision to a vote.

Former head tour guide, Will Li ‘15, noted the criteria by which the admission office selected the new head tour guides. “We wanted new guides who were passionate about Exeter, people who essentially would be the face of the Admissions Office for the next school year,” he said. “We wanted people who would be honest about the amazing parts of Exeter and certain aspects about the school that could improve. But most of all, we wanted people who would make applicants excited about this place that we call home for four years.”

To instill excitement in prospective students, the occupation of head tour guide requires a fervent passion for admissions. Each of the nine seniors demonstrates this trait. “The main reason I wanted to become a head tour guide is because I love giving tours, and applying seemed like the natural extension of that,” Tanguay said.

Wu agreed with Tanguay, adding that he wished to become even more involved with the admissions process. Rider only started working as a tour guide a year before he was selected as one of the head tour guides, but said that not joining the tour guide program before last year had to be “one of my biggest regrets from my time here.”

“Within a week of signups, I was giving one, two, even three tours a week just because I enjoyed it so much,” Rider said. “It’s not just that the kids are really kind and bright: there’s a huge amount of gratification that comes from sharing your Exeter experience with these families because by sharing the great memories you have, you provide the encouragement a lot of families need to join the community.”

What tops it all off, Lee said, was the camaraderie of the admissions team, whom he has grown to love during the past two years. “I wanted to become head tour guide because I really love working with the admissions team,” he said. “Mrs. Waleryszak and Mrs. Murphy are both so sweet and I’ve known Mr. Gary for a couple years now. I wanted to continue working with them and help out by doing more than just giving tours.”

The positive mindset that the newly selected head tour guides bring with them will bode well for the admissions team this upcoming year. With these seniors in the front seat, the admissions team is looking to make some big changes to alleviate some of the issues that confused many of the tour guides last year, particularly scheduling difficulties.

The office is looking to reorder the touring assignment so that tour guides commit one certain block each week for touring, unlike last year, during which the admissions office notified the guide of the tour a couple days before the actual tour. “The point is to lessen the chaos that we used to have with finding tour guides with available time,” Wu said.

In addition to the new scheduling tactic, the admissions office plans to increase “emphasis on training and the ‘quality’ of the tour,” according to Waleryszak.

Gary credited the head tour guides with this responsibility of helping the tour guide “quality” improve. “[The head tour guides] are key in the quality of tours offered because the training and the matching with visiting families start with them,” he said.

In the first tour guide interest meeting of the year, the head tour guides each handed out a “Tour Guide Routes and Talking Points” sheet that listed critical information that the prospective students should know about Exeter before applying to be a tour guide. Waleryszak hopes that informative sessions such as these will further improve tour quality.

Although the admissions season will be yet another busy year planned with many objectives, Waleryszak has full confidence that the newly appointed head tour guides will help lead the way through the work that is laid out in front of them.

Also, she noted that, without the entire team from the prep tour guides to the head tour guides, the admissions office would not function.

“On behalf of Mr. Gary, the entire Admissions team and myself, we give thanks and praise to our Head Tour Guides and all tour guides,” she said. “We simply could not do our jobs without you. You are why Exeter is the best.”

Contributions from Natalia Madison