Abby Fortuin ’27 is an English and political science double major from Hingham, Massachusetts, and a writing intern for Trinity’s Office of Communications and Marketing. On campus, she’s involved in Greek life as a member of the Stella Society, serves as a reader for the student literary magazine The Vernacular, and is a member of Barnyard Events and Activities Committee. She worked last fall as a New Student Orientation (NSO) leader and is currently an Admissions student recruitment ambassador, giving campus tours to prospective students and their families. She is passionate about telling anybody (and everybody!) all about Trinity.
My elementary school report cards, my dance coach, and the boss of my first waitressing job all described me as “a talker.” Especially when it comes to things I care about, I truly can (and will) go on and on. My outgoing nature made applying to my job as a tour guide at Trinity’s Manuel and María Luisa Lopes Borges Admissions Center feel like a no-brainer.
I enjoy being a tour guide because I know how important first impressions can be, and I want to let prospective students see Trinity through my eyes. The first college tour I ever attended was at a big state university. I was immediately overwhelmed by the prospect of enrolling in a school double the size of my entire hometown—an amount of people I couldn’t even begin to conceptualize. The second college tour I went on was here at dear old Trinity. I was 16. It was raining. That alone may have been enough to turn me away from other colleges, but something kept Trinity in my mind.
I went on through the college search process, but I returned to Trinity for another tour. I remember a student tour guide patiently and confidently answering all of my dad’s questions in the Admissions building lobby. After I applied through the Common App and was accepted, I came back to campus for an admitted students event, which took place about five days before soon-to-be undergraduate students around the country had to commit to a school. This was where I met three future friends and two current roommates, one of whom—after our tour together when we chatted through the entire route—told me I had to enroll at Trinity, because if I didn’t, she “wouldn’t know a single person.” That, combined with the beautiful spring day on a campus overflowing with a sense of community and comfort that gave me the distinct feeling of being at home, helped me make my decision.
That’s the story that I tell at the conclusion of every tour I give, during the allocated “Why Trinity?” time. The meet-cute of my future friends at an admitted students day always elicits coos from parents, and the uncertainty I held until the very last minute puts anxious students at ease. I absolutely love ending tours this way.
Tour guides can really make or break how a student sees a college. As the oldest of three girls, I didn’t know how to approach a college search at all, and I felt completely lost in the process. The standout point of the whole experience wasn’t the schools’ specific programs, esteemed faculty, or that the libraries got quieter as you went up to the higher floors. It was always the student tour guides who helped convince me that a college could be where I continued my academic career.
I think this is why Assistant Director of Admissions Dillard Taylor ’12 advocates so strongly for tour guides to weave our own experiences at Trinity into the tours. Instead of reciting a by-the-book, scripted walk-through of campus, I get to talk about where I live, point out my favorite study spots and where my roommate does research, and proudly admit my addiction to the Bistro’s acai bowls. By humanizing ourselves and showing how personalized the College can be, tour guides provide a sense of actual student life on campus and why we love it so much.
It’s easy and natural for me to brag about Trinity. Whether I’m chatting with families at the front desk, meeting alumni and their children, or giving tours to people from around the world, I love nothing more than to talk away about the school that became home.
