Leaders of the Pack

Student ambassadors enrich JMU’s past, present, future

As some students geared up for a relaxing Friday afternoon, a group of prospective high school juniors and seniors were greeted outside Sonner Hall by student tour guides. Sophomore Mary Mason Wright and Jenna Krauss led a tour of eight people through campus. As they carefully walked backwards beside Newman Lake, past Mrs. Greens and into Zane Showker Hall, they stated facts about JMU’s academics and encouraged questions from the group. As the tour progressed through the west side of campus, people walked or drove by, some shouting out pleas for the tour participants to come to JMU. As members of Student Ambassadors, tours are just one of many things students do to contribute to the JMU community.

Student Ambassadors is a club full of enthusiastic students working to benefit campus. "First, we’re ambassadors to the university, if it will help the university in any way," said president and senior Lawson Ricketts. "Our motto is ‘Students serving students, past, present and future’."

Originally known as the Student Alumni Association in the ’80s, the organization changed its name in 1994 to Student Ambassadors. Now, instead of solely existing for the benefit of alumni, ambassadors serves prospective and current students, as well as alumni.

They are involved with many different activities at JMU and within the Harrisonburg community. A recent project was Madison P.R.I.D.E, where students were trained to return to their high schools and talk about JMU. Another was a "Senior Prom" thrown at Loyalton Nursing Home. Each year, they also sponsor Operation Santa Claus to raise money and provide gifts to needy Harrisonburg children.

Student Ambassadors receives many applications from JMU students. Once accepted, new members train throughout the spring semester. After a month of shadowing tours and practicing, they begin giving tours alone.

"When I gave my first tour, I was so nervous, my voice was shaky and I ran into a pole outside of one of the residence halls, but — thankfully — only my pride was hurt," Wright said. "I thought it hadn’t gone very well and then later that week, I got an e-mail from a girl saying that she was coming to JMU because she liked my tour so much. Needless to say, I was ecstatic."

In fact, these tours are what student ambassadors are most known for. However, the tours aren’t pulled off without a lot of hard work behind the scenes. Each year, ambassadors are provided with a tour manual prepared by the Office of Admissions, giving current facts about the university. "We have to memorize facts about each academic building, student service information, General Education, sports, UREC, class sizes, student to teacher ratios, fun facts about the sun dial and kissing rock and everything in between," Wright said.

In addition to memorizing facts, tour guides must stop at five different places; a dining hall, a residence hall, an academic building, Carrier Library, Taylor Hall and Warren Hall. Aside from this, the rest of the tour is left up to the guides. "Everyone’s tour is a little different because they tell different stories," Ricketts said. "They give personal stories. I tell stories for example about freshman year and D-hall favorites."

On Wright and Krauss’ tour, the pair enjoyed sharing lesser-known facts about JMU. As the tour passed over the railroad tracks, Wright told a story of the student who thought it would be funny to ride the train to his next class. "He didn’t realize that when it got to the outskirts of campus it sped up. He had to ride it all the way to Charlottesville," he said.

As the tour entered the final stages on the Quad, the guides pointed to the famous kissing rock. Wright said when JMU was an all women’s school, each dorm had a dorm mother who approved and checked out the dates and insisted the girls return by 8 p.m. The only place to have a goodnight kiss where the dorm mother wouldn’t see was behind the kissing rock. According to the myth, Wright said, whoever you kiss on the rock, you will marry.

Rickets said that some of the funniest moments on her tours involved girls’ dads. "Many times students will yell out of their dorms, ‘Give us your daughters!’ And, of course, there are horror stories of tripping while walking backwards," he added. However, all these memorable moments only add to the benefits the ambassadors receive from the club.

As the tour drew to a close at the James Madison statue, Wright and Krauss shared with the group reasons they chose to attend JMU. The tour participants agreed that the tour would definitely influence their decision to attend James Madison. High school junior Thomas Queen, of Richmond said he enjoyed the enthusiasm of the guides and that they answered a lot of questions. "It was very well done," his father Bill Queen said. "We have done a couple of others, but this was much better. It was longer, covered more things and was much more personal."

Though there are many positive aspects of being part of the organization, ambassadors say the best part of the group is the people. Many have met their best friends in the organization.

"They, in my opinion, are some of the most amazing people I’ve met on this campus, and I am so proud to be able to share this experience with them," Wright said.

McCray agreed, "It’s been so wonderful being part of a group with such passionate people who love this school so much. I feel so blessed to be part of an organization that gets to leave such a big impact on this campus."

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