Tour guide coordinator helps visitors ‘spark a connection’ with Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For many prospective Penn State students, their introduction to the University starts with a campus tour. What they see, learn and experience during those 90 minutes could greatly influence their decision whether to apply to Penn State or commit to other institutions. Brandon McDonald, tour guide coordinator in Undergraduate Admissions, is charged with helping tour participants feel at home and spark a connection with the University — ultimately leading to them becoming Penn Staters.  

With the help of approximately 100 student tour guides, McDonald oversees the campus tour experience for thousands of prospective students and their families at University Park each year. On average, Penn State tour guides lead five to eight campus tours a week for approximately 160 visitors. McDonald also coordinates campus tours led by student guides during larger-scale recruitment events, such as Spend a Summer Day, which draws hundreds of prospective students and their families per event.  

Although, McDonald said, he did not participate in a Penn State tour himself as a prospective undergraduate student — he earned a bachelor’s degree in child development from Central Michigan University (CMU) in 2021 — he has quickly become a true Penn Stater who has a unique perspective of what makes the University extraordinary. He earned a master’s degree in higher education administration from Penn State in 2023, during which time he also began working in Undergraduate Admissions to coordinate and manage tours and recruitment events. He earned a graduate certificate in institutional research in 2023 and is currently pursuing a doctorate in education policy and leadership.   

“I just love the Penn State community and its people,” said McDonald, who was nominated by his fellow students for the Graduate and Professional Homecoming Court in 2022. “Penn State is known for its pride and community. I learned that quickly when I first arrived here, and it is first and foremost what I want prospective students and their families to take away from our tours.” 

In this Q&A, McDonald discusses his role as tour guide coordinator, how he recruits and trains Penn State students to represent the University, and what he hopes prospective students and their families gain from his team’s efforts. 

Q: What drew you to Penn State for your graduate education and work? 

McDonald: I worked in a similar capacity running tour programs as an undergraduate student at CMU and loved it. I knew it was something I wanted to continue doing. I applied to a number of schools with great higher education graduate programs. Penn State was the only place where I felt like I could do exactly what I’m good at and what I enjoy doing — working with students. Not only do I get to plan and run recruitment events, but I am also able to contribute to student development and success by hiring, training and managing student tour guides and helping them strengthen their leadership and interpersonal skills. I get to watch them grow up while they’re here.

I also have the opportunity to serve as a counselor and talk with families through the lens of enrollment management. I am constantly thinking about what types of visits we want to have and where we want to travel for recruitment events. I get to bring all of these things together in this role. When the position was offered to me as a prospective graduate student, I knew that it was a perfect fit. So I accepted the offer, came to Penn State and have loved it here ever since. 

Q: Give a brief overview of your typical day-to-day responsibilities. 

McDonald: I oversee campus tours at University Park and serve as a liaison with staff leading tour programs in the academic colleges and at the Commonwealth Campuses. A large part of my day is student management — working with tour guides to make sure they have what they need for that day’s tours or collaborating with interns in my office on recruitment materials and events. I also help plan and prepare for large-scale recruitment events at University Park and smaller trips to communities across the commonwealth.  

Q: What can a prospective student expect from a Penn State tour? 

McDonald: Every tour is unique. There is a baseline of key information that tour guides are required to talk about on the tour — for example, stopping in front of the Berkey Creamery to highlight that campus landmark. Each tour is 90 minutes, and the mandated “script” by no means takes up the entire time. The rest of the tour is up to each student tour guide and how they want to influence their audience by sharing their own personal experiences — what they do in their free time, how they see campus, what their favorite classes are, etc. So while every tour will cover necessary topics like housing and the application process, the flair that each tour has is a little different depending on which student is leading it. 

Q: What are the key takeaways you want prospective students and their families to have? 

McDonald: I really want to get across the fact that Penn State is a large school that students can make feel small by finding their community. That community piece is big. These prospective students are likely also touring other schools and seeing different things with each visit, so we want to show them what makes Penn State stand apart. And what makes Penn State unique is that we have the big resources of an R1 (Research 1), Division I institution, but by no means are we a place that makes you feel like you’re just a number. I hope we are conveying that on every tour we lead. The tour guides are trained to connect with prospective students, personalize the visit and show them what it’s like to find that community at Penn State. No one will remember small factoids about things they see on a tour, such as what year a specific building was constructed, but they will remember how they felt on campus. It is our job to convey that feeling.

Q: How does your role contribute to student success? 

McDonald: Every tour guide gains hands-on work experience. They are learning things like how to be organized, the requirements of wearing a uniform and representing a brand, and how to best interact with their peers. They are also strengthening valuable transferable interpersonal skills like public speaking, leadership and time management. Our office interns are developing skills and gaining experience in their respective areas, such as marketing and event planning. They are all practically applying what they learn in the classroom to their positions in Undergraduate Admissions.  

Q: How do you recruit, train and prepare tour guides to represent the University effectively and on brand? 

McDonald: The tour guide recruitment piece is fun, because students really get to lead their own recruitment. We are not a student organization, but the tour guides treat it like one. We attend the Involvement Fair and some job fairs to encourage students to consider applying to become a tour guide. Once new guides are on board we put an emphasis on their training, which has been developed differently than other institutions’ programs. We offer a fully online training in Canvas, which is essentially a class that incoming tour guides must take to learn all of the information they need to know. After they complete the course, we meet in person several times for workshops to go over the personality aspects and scenarios they might encounter on a tour, such as what to do if there is a disruptive guest or how to answer unusual questions. The rest of the training is peer-led. New guides will be paired up with two or three veteran guides to practice mock tours, where they’ll perfect everything from talking about the right key points at the right locations, to inserting their own personalities into their presentation, to walking backwards. 

Q: How are you applying what you’ve learned through your master’s or current doctoral programs in your role, and vice versa? 

McDonald: There is a lot of overlap. A cool thing about the Penn State master’s program was that the 13 students in my cohort all had different grad assistant positions working in different areas. In class we would talk about elements of student development theory, such as “How are we helping students develop?” and “What are we offering students to enrich their educational experience as they earn their degrees?” That’s also happening at the University. We all had different ways of sharing how we were using those concepts in our own ways in our different roles. I took what I learned in class and applied it to recruitment or to my tour guides, which was much different than how others in my cohort who worked in different spaces or focused areas approached it. I also took specialized courses that I really enjoyed. One course on enrollment management focused on recruitment and the process, criteria and decision-making for building a class of students. My colleagues in my office are doing that work every day, so I got to directly apply what I learned through my coursework.

As I continue in my doctoral program, I am excited to do more of that and to continue working with students. I hope to get more involved with teaching, possibly turning the tour guide training and experience into a course. There are many things I learned in my Penn State courses that I have been able to directly apply to my work.   

Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

McDonald: Every so often we will hire a new tour guide who went on one of our tours, came to Penn State and loved it so much that they wanted to become a tour guide themselves. That is one of my favorite things about this job. Another one is when one of our tour guides has a genuine, strong connection with a prospective student or family on a tour. I often hear from tour guides that someone will approach them and say, “You gave me my tour at Penn State and now I’m a student here.” Witnessing those connection moments is so rewarding.