Kite and Key guides talk funny tour moments

The Kite and Key Society tour guides get to meet prospective students and talk about all the great things at Penn, but each tour is unique and things can get a little weird. The Daily Pennsylvanian caught up with some of the tour guides to ask them about funny and awkward experiences.

College sophomore Andrea Klein:

The Daily Pennsylvanian: What do you like about giving tours?

Andrea Klein: A lot of times I’ll get a great tour group with students who are so excited and tell me that this is their dream school and it reminds me how much I love it here and how lucky I am to be here.

DP: What’s your favorite story to add to the tour?

AK: When I talk about Penn Ride I tell them that one of my friends and I took it back from Trader Joe’s because we didn’t want to carry our groceries.

DP: What was the most uncomfortable moment of any tour?

AK: You always get the people who ask what SAT score you got, which is sort of uncomfortable because I don’t want to act like I think I’m really smart just because I ended up here.

College freshman Anessa Amin:

DP: What do you like about giving tours?

Anessa Amin: I love the fact that I go to school here and all the prospective students are so amazed by everything. They’re so in shock that people actually go here and that you’re a normal person because they expect you to be this crazy smart, intellectual person.

DP: What’s your most memorable experience?

AA: I had one tour where a set of parents came up and walked with me throughout the tour and asked me how I thought I got in. The kid came up to me at the end of the tour and told me he was really sorry for his parents.

DP: Most uncomfortable moment?

AA: My friend was giving this tour and was talking about campus and student life and a mother raised her hand and goes, “How many sexual partners have you had since being here.” My friend just told her, “I don’t really think that’s pertinent to this tour.”

College junior Meredith Kline:

DP: What’s your favorite story to add to the tour?

Meredith Kline: Whenever I tell the toast story next to Franklin Field I always watch people’s reactions. If they’re laughing then I know I told it right, but if they’re not laughing then I just laugh at myself until they laugh.

College junior Taylor Nefussy:

DP: What’s the most interesting question you’ve ever been asked?

Taylor Nefussy: I got asked two weeks ago what we thought about Trump. I said that he is an alumni at Penn but if it gives any perspective the Penn for Trump [student group] was disbanded recently.

Wharton sophomore Michelle Ding:

DP: Why did you become a tour guide?

Michelle Ding: I really liked public speaking so it was a way for me to combine public speaking with a school I love. Additionally, I saw the red Kite and Key water bottles everywhere and I really liked them, so I wanted to do it because of that too.

DP: What’s one of the most uncomfortable moments you’ve had?

MD: We’ll get a lot of aggressive parents who keep pushing their kids closer to me to ask questions. They sometimes have very weird and specific questions too like ‘are there fried plantains in the dining hall’ or they’ll ask about how the parties are.

DP: What’s one of the most interesting questions you’ve been asked?

MD: One guy asked me if I could take them to a party. I just said I had a problem set due at midnight so I’d be staying in.

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