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Westfield State University is known for prioritizing its students and their education, leading to the establishment of various programs and opportunities created to enhance both academic and extracurricular learning. For those looking to develop complex interpersonal and problem-solving skills, training to be a student tour guide helps to improve initiative and leadership when it comes to not only their academic life, but their personal one as well.

In an interview, Katelyn Shea, Associate Director of Admissions, discussed the benefits of becoming a student tour guide and what that process entails. She also elaborated on what her experience has been like overseeing the tour guides as they continue to grow and build skills that are applicable to the real world.

“I started just over twenty years ago here at Westfield State, in the Admissions office,” she said. “I was hired as an Admissions Counselor, which was great for someone who was just out of college. When you’re looking for colleges, you don’t think as you’re sitting down in a high school counseling office, ‘That’s their job’.”

After the position opened, Shea joined the tour guide program and watched as it grew in number over time. “One of the assistant directors who was overseeing the tour guides left, so I was able to take on that responsibility. The program ran a certain way and I was familiar with it, so it was easy to jump in. As times changed, the tour program has had to change and adapt as well. We’ve gone from fifteen student tour guides to thirty. It’s been a great experience.”

Because the tour guides highlight the community at Westfield State, both Shea and the student tour guides have also fostered a sense of connection as she oversees their work. “My favorite thing is the relationships I’ve been able to foster, not just with my mentors here, but the relationships I have with my student tour guides,” she said about it. “I keep in touch with a lot of students, whether it be through LinkedIn, social media apps, or if they simply shoot me a text. It’s the relationships within the position that I’ve been able to build.”</