Being the handshake of Liberty University: Inside the campus tour experience
Liberty University has its very own campus VIPs. The student tour guides who work at the Hancock Welcome Center give every prospective student the inside scoop about life at the university from a firsthand perspective.
Liberty’s student tour guides call themselves the “handshake of the university,” and they live up to that title. After prospective students fight traffic on Wards Road, navigate Liberty’s campus to find parking and then ascend the grand stairs of the welcome center, they might be a bit intimidated. However, the student tour guides greet them at the door with wide smiles to ease any nerves.
“We’re the handshake of the university because we’re right there to greet them. It’s a really cool opportunity but also a really big responsibility to represent the university well and the Lord well,” Ariel Bobe, a student tour guide, said.
Every tour provided by the welcome center is led by a student who has lived in the dorms, eaten at the dining locations and participated in the variety of activities offered across campus. This personal touch added to every tour is designed to give families a true glimpse into what life at Liberty looks like.
Senior student tour guide, Chris Immordino, said that he loves helping parents who have a lot of questions. When asked difficult questions, Immordino feels that he can speak from personal experience and ease a parent’s mind.
“A lot of us have experiences where students and family come back to campus and are like, ‘You were my tour guide.’ It’s cool to see that impact on people,” Immordino said.
Bobe said that she tries to make her tours interactive and engaging so that prospective students can find what they are looking for in a college experience. “We love to showcase that Liberty does have a place for everyone,” Bobe said. “I want to show them how they can fit onto campus.”
Like most things at Liberty, the campus tours are centered around the Gospel. In every tour, the foundation of the Christian faith is shared, and the group is prayed over. This opportunity to share the Gospel with everyone who visits campus has been one of Bobe’s favorite parts of the job.
“Behind representing the university, we’re also representing the Lord,” Bobe said. “I’ve never had the opportunity to practice saying it (the Gospel) a thousand times, but that really is what this job is.”
The Liberty Champion’s Arts and Culture editor Trinity Merritt said that she specifically remembers being personally prayed for by a student tour guide when she visited campus, and that experience was a big factor in her decision to attend Liberty.
Being a student tour guide is not all work and no play. Both Bobe and Immordino said that the work environment has been one of the biggest blessings of the job.
“I really love the community we have as coworkers here. It truly is like our own community and family. We hang out outside of work a lot, blowing up the work group chat. We have really good relationships here,” Immordino said.
The joyful and lifegiving community that the student tour guides have created among themselves truly pours over into their jobs and their passion to serve potential Liberty students. There is something unique about students who enjoy their college experience so much that they desire to share about it every single day.
If you want to experience this special type of tour, tours are offered Monday through Saturday at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sundays.
Mullet is a staff writer for the Liberty Champion.