Hello! My name is Kelsey, and I am a sophomore English Studies and Spanish major and a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) minor. With one year under my belt at Illinois State I can truly say that I couldn’t be happier with my college decision. After visiting several schools during my junior and senior years of high school, I decided that ISU was the best school for me because it offered all of the academic and extracurricular opportunities I desired while not overwhelming me with its size. When I set foot on campus for my first open house and saw almost all of the buildings right there on the quad, I looked at my mom and said, “Yep. I could really see myself coming here.”
Since that first visit, I have made so many lasting friendships through several different Registered Student Organizations (RSOs). I’ve been involved in the Presidential Scholars Club, Senior Professional Mentors, the Honors Program, and especially my campus ministry Encounter. In addition to growing relationally through these organizations, I have also grown professionally through working in the Admissions Office as an Admissions Ambassador (you may see me on the quad giving tours!) and the English Language Institute as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant.
Throughout my time at ISU, I have met so many wonderful people and made innumerable memories that will last a life time. My hope is that through this blog you too can discover all that Illinois State University has to offer.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Charles Cunningham // Nov 8, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Kelsey,
Let me start by saying that I was in your tour group Friday afternoon with my son Leigh. We were the last family you spoke with (you walked with us and directed us to campus town to buy “t” shirts). The comments I am about to share with you regarding your tour come from both a parent of a college bound senior who has been on a few campus tours and a person who works as a tour guide supervisor. I work as an admissions counselor at U of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). One of my major duties is hiring and training our student tour guides. While training tour guides is something I have been doing for only 5 years, I have been giving tours at UIC for more than 30 years while coaching and teaching tennis. I mention this with the hope that it will lend a little more credibility to the comments I am going to share with you regarding your tour. I will start by saying that your tour embodied two of the most important elements I consider essential to a quality tour–informative and entertaining. For a 2nd year student, your knowledge of ISU and ability to address a group of strangers was quite impressive. While some of the credit must go to the person that trained you, most of it has to be attributed to your ability to take what was given to you as a trainee and applying it. Interestingly enough, what impressed me more was your enthusiasm. While the information was great, what was more important was the fact that I felt you genuinely enjoyed being with us. I can tell you that with all of the tours I have done at UIC, I get more comments about how enjoyable my tours are than what is in a particular building. This is important when you consider many of your visitors will have made a few campus visits before they get to you and will have heard a lot of the same information before. You walked us around the ISU campus for 90 minutes, and with the information, your timely humor and enthusiasm, I never noticed how cold it was (until Leigh reminded me). I only wish I had taken the time to videotape the tour to give my tour guides a great example of what I talk about all the time. I could go on with more comments about what I enjoyed about your tour, but I would like to share a few suggestions that I feel would make it a an even more powerful experience. First there is the length of the tour. I know you want to make our trip to your campus worthwhile, however, a 90 minute walking tour is a little long, especially for some parents (and possibly grandparents). And on such a cold day, for some, that 90 minutes may seem even longer, and we were outside a lot more than in. The other issue is that of what I call “engagement.” You kept us walking at a pretty brisk pace (not a bad thing since it was so cold). However, the manner in which you led the tour (walking ahead of us, and on occasion a few feet ahead), this didn’t lend itself to much interaction with the group. When I lead a tour group of this size, I set the goal of spending a moment with each family along the way. This may be something as simple as asking where they are from or what they plan to study. When you add engagement along with information and enthusiasm, you will consistently give visitors a memorable experience. Kelsy, I want to conclude by saying how much Leigh and I enjoyed our visit. Leigh has indicated that ISU is a school he would like to attend if he gets in, something he hasn’t said about any other school we have visited except UIC where he has been visiting for 17 years! I would love to share my positive impression of your job as a tour guide to your supervisor. I realize you may not get a lot of visitors who will take the time to respond to their tour experience, so it is important to me that your supervisor and fellow tour guides know how great a job you do. If you wish to share my comments with the appropriate individual(s), please do. Or if there is someone I can send an email to, let me know and I will do so. If you would like to write back to me about my comments I’d love to hear from you. And if after graduation you don’t find a job in your field, I have a job for you at UIC as a tour guide trainer/supervisor. You were terrific!!!
2 kmcoker // Nov 10, 2008 at 9:09 am
Mr. Cunningham-
I passed this on to my tour supervisor as well. Thank you again. Good luck to you and Leigh during the rest of the college search!
Thank you so much for your kind words and your advice as well. I will definitely take both to heart and alter my tour as needed. I enjoyed every minute of Fridays tour, and I am glad that you and Leigh did too. I appreciate your comments very much especially from someone in your position.
-Kelsey
3 Britany Owen // Nov 13, 2008 at 1:20 am
Well done, Miss Kelsey! I knew this was something you were excited to do and it should be no surprise that you rose to the task exceedingly, but it is great hearing how you still choose to execute your tours with excellence. I’m proud to be your friend.
And thanks Mr Cunningham, for such commitment to your feedback. What a blessing to have follow-up like that!
Hopefully I’ll see you soon, my sweet friend, Kelsey!
4 James Cullen // Apr 18, 2009 at 10:57 am
Kelsey,
I was in your tour group on thursday April 16th. My wife and I brought our daughter down for the 1 o’clock tour. This was one of three tours we had that week. I can honestly say that we learned far more than we expected to learn. The other Universities could learn from you. We talked to briefly at the end of the tour about Spain, (our daughter was there last year). Your knowledge and spirit about ISU makes the school become more desirable. You are a wonderful tour guide.
Thank you so much, The Cullen family
5 kmcoker // Apr 20, 2009 at 8:36 am
Mr. Cullen-
Thank you so much for your encouraging words! I am so glad that you all had an enjoyable experience at ISU. That is what we strive for! Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions or comments about the application process or whatever your daughter’s senior year may hold. Good luck with everything and thanks again.
-Kelsey
6 kenny // Jul 24, 2009 at 1:01 pm
hey Kelsey, I actually regret not having a tour on campus with you,hahaha. But I guess I could get to know the whole campus in the year I spent there hahaha. anyway, so good you’re famous, you deserve it. take care
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