Senior tour guide, expert at walking backwards, URI facts

01/27/09 - Ever wonder what the average University of Rhode Island student's SAT score is, or how many professors have Ph.D.s? How about the number of different tree species on campus? While many students would likely have to consult a university publication, the URI tour guides are armed with every statistic possible and prepared to showcase their knowledge to high school students interested in attending URI.

Senior Andrew Cadorette, 21, from Biddeford, Maine, has been a tour guide since his sophomore year. Today he's a seasoned-pro when it comes to condensing everything URI into an hour and a half walking tour.

"We're the bridge that gaps seniors to college," Cadorette said. "Sometimes we're the first faces they see."

Cadorette, a pharmacy major and one of 80 tour guides, said he knew URI was the place for him after taking a tour of URI during his senior year of high school.

He remembers thinking, "if [my tour guide] has this love for the school...then I hope to be the same way."

Once or twice a week Cadorette meets groups of 20-25 people, mostly high school students and their families, at the admission tour booth in the Memorial Union lounge.

From there, walking backward to project his voice, he leads the group around the top of campus, giving potential students their first glimpse of URI's academic buildings and library.

Next, visitors tour dining halls and dorm rooms, making a stop in Browning Hall's sample dorm room, which Cadorette said is comparable to the rooms many URI students call home.

"Obviously it's a lot tidier and nicer," he said. "There's not laundry everywhere."

The sample room has all the standard dorm furniture complete with a made up bed and a TV.

The last stop on the tour is at the very bottom of campus where potential students learn about URI athletics and get a peek at Mackal Fieldhouse's facilities.

All along the way Cadorette, still walking backwards, fields questions from his group.

The most common question he gets is "Can freshman have cars on campus?"

Otherwise, "security is a big issue," he said. Cadorette said parents are asking more questions about just how safe URI is in light of the events that occurred at Virginia Tech and other universities.

"But beyond walking backward, the most challenging part is just trying to put the university in a nutshell in an hour and a half," Cadorette said.

The most embarrassing part, he found, is running into friends while giving tours.

During one tour, as a joke, one of his friends announced, "You left your clothes at my house last night!" Cadorette said he turned bright red and did his best to convince the group she was obviously kidding.

On the first Saturday of each semester, guides attend a training session where they are given binders filled with all sorts of URI information and statistics.

During these days, Cadorette said guides focus on their communication and cohesion skills.

Though Cadorette hasn't finished his studies at URI just yet, he said this will be his last year as a tour guide. He hopes to pass his role down to younger students wishing to gain more leadership experience.

Potential tour guides apply each year in mid-March. Applicants can apply as early as the spring semester of their freshman year. After filling out an application, applicants sign up for a group interview. At the interview three to four tour guide coordinators interview two or three applicants. The interview takes about half an hour and within the next couple of weeks, selected applicants are notified.

Cadorette said currently the 80 guides giving tours throughout the week, consist of "sophomores to seniors from all different majors, from all different states."

Cadorette advises potential applicants, "Don't be intimidated by the wealth of knowledge that tour guides possess, that's trainable."

"The No. 1 thing [interviewers look for] would be passion," Cadorette said.

Though the job requires memorizing countless statistics and factual tidbits, he said that part can be memorized. Confidence and enthusiasm must be qualities the candidate already possesses.