MSU Tour Guides are storytellers. They are passionate about the university, sharing interesting facts and unknown tidbits with guests who arrive to campus eager to learn more about what MSU has to offer. But tour guides do more than just show off campus. They share their unique Spartan stories, weaving in pieces of their individual experiences to reveal just what makes Michigan State University so special.

From prospective Spartans and families to school groups who want to explore the university, MSU tour guides bring campus to life, highlighting its beauty, history and spirit.

Becoming an MSU Tour Guide
The tour guide onboarding process begins during the fall of each academic school year. Due to the large volume of guests each year, MSU Tours likes to have between 150 to 175 tour guides on staff. This past academic year, MSU Tours worked with 196 candidates and 110 students received an offer.

The interview process is extensive. Interviewees are asked a series of questions before they are allotted five minutes to present on any topic their heart desires. This method allows the hiring committee to gauge students’ storytelling abilities and how well they articulate something they are passionate about.

MSU Tour Guide Training
Once hired, the new guides take part in training unique to the tour guide program prior to beginning official work in the spring. New guides are required to take TG 101, or Tour Guide 101.

“TG 101 is a six-week course where our new guides are divided out into different cohorts based on their schedule and are taught by a pro staff or graduate assistant along with a student supervisor,” says Assistant Director of Residence Education and Housing Services Outreach Linda Karbo. “We meet with our cohorts once a week, two hours in person, and then there is a whole plethora of asynchronous learning that we’ve developed to be accessible for different types of learners.”

The guides in the TG 101 course enjoy hearing from the student supervisors, as they have lived the tour guide life. They get to ask the supervisors about their experiences and how they prepare for and overcome certain situations, offering new guides some real-world insight.

“I’ve learned so many things through the tours program that I didn’t know existed coming in,” says Student Supervisor Hannah Greenspan. “I didn’t know how Olin [Health Center] worked or that we had a program called Spartan Compass, and I didn’t fully understand the nuances of the dining plan. A lot of what I’ve learned about how to navigate as a student at MSU, I learned through the TG 101 program.”

After they have finished the course, the new guides can start taking on tours. However, the learning does not stop there. The guides have training each semester along with a monthly meeting, each featuring a presentation on a program, office or something relating to the university. 

Each guide leaves educated on how to inform guests about these topics and their importance to MSU. In these meetings guides are also updated on any new tour routes or student supervisors.

Additionally, during these meetings, a Tour Guide of the Month gets selected. At the last meeting of the school year, student superlatives are also awarded to the tour guides. When Greenspan was a first-year student, she was given the superlative Most Likely to Meet Tom Izzo at a Basketball Game and awarded Tour Guide of the Month.

“It was her peers – the other tour guides – who nominated her and voted for her as someone they looked up to, someone that is a fantastic tour guide,” says Tour Manager Amanda Ross. “And that is one of my favorite things about the awards – the tour guides getting the chance to recognize each other for the great work they do.”

Showcasing the Spartan Experience
Regarding the tours themselves, they happen year-round with the only days off being winter and spring break and two to three weeks in August and May. MSU Tours offers a variety of programs accommodating a wide array of needs.

“Our primary focus is really welcoming those prospective and admitted student groups to campus so that they can get acclimated with what we’re about and what it means to be a Spartan,” says Karbo.

One type of tour offered is a first-year prospective program, which occurs most days, in which guests can expect a presentation from the Office of Admissions along with a tour of campus. For those who would prefer, there are also tour-only days.

In the spring, the admitted student program dives a bit deeper. Tour guides talk about more details for students who have received admission to MSU and are still trying to make that final decision as to where they want to go to college.
On addition, MSU Tours offers visits with different colleges across campus to highlight areas of campus common to those students’ experiences.

In addition to tours, tour guides also partner on major campus community events. For example, MSU Tours hosts tours for Admitted Student Day with the Office of Admissions in the spring, which brings in around 11,000 people to campus. This huge event highlights academic resources and information regarding student resources, involvement and engagement. For Green & White Days, individual residence hall and campus history tours are offered.

For almost every need, there is a campus tour designed to pair with it. 

Sharing the Right Information
Ross emphasizes the goal of each tour is to share what it is like to be part of the MSU community and what it is like to be a student at MSU. Most importantly, tours are designed to help potential incoming students figure out if this university is a good fit for them.

“One of the things we always say is that misinformation is our nemesis. We want to make sure that we’re providing clear information,” says Karbo. “We want to be welcoming, and we want to be honest about what it means to be at Michigan State University.”

At the end of the day, the tours are there to provide students with all the information they need to make an educated decision about whether becoming a Spartan is for them.

“We tell everyone that a tour is successful even if at the end someone goes, ‘That’s really cool, but I don’t think this school is for me,’” says Ross. “It’s just as successful as all the tours where someone is like, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I’m coming to MSU now.’ We know that not everyone is going to be a Spartan, and that’s OK.”

Everyone Has a Spartan Story
Everyone has their own story to share. To those who want to learn about Greenspan’s Spartan story, read more here. To learn more about the tours itself or becoming a tour guide, visit liveon.msu.edu.