By: Alexander Landen

When you work as a tour guide for a university, you often get the question, “Do they pay you to say that?”

It is a constant stigma that ambassadors for any organization, product or attraction face.  People are constantly listening and wondering if you are telling them the truth or reading them what the “big boss upstairs” says they are supposed to hear.

Granted, I am sure there are many organizations where it is a moral struggle to share the information people are given and I’m not trying to tell you all salespeople are honest. I am simply recognizing the blessing that it is to work for a university that I, at no point in time, need to lie to make it sound great.

Another tour guide and I often joke with guests, telling them, “They don’t pay me enough to lie to you.” (Not saying I wouldn’t for the right amount) However, the point is, that it’s difficult to fathom what lies could make EMU sound better.

EMU is simply one of the most accepting, interconnected, community-based and academically-sound institutions that I have had the pleasure of experiencing. On tours, I rave about the amount of involvement opportunities on campus. They truly exist!

I constantly harp on the benefits of taking advantage of the academic resources that this campus provides. They really do work!

Every day, I find myself telling someone who walks into the Admissions Welcome Center that I came to school at EMU to get my degree and get out quickly but somewhere along the way I fell in love with Eastern. It’s a true story!

I have the pleasure of telling people about a place that makes me happy and makes me feel at home in a community of 23,000 people. This is the truth and I have the honor and the privilege of welcoming people to this campus with that truth each day. So when people ask, “Do they pay you to say that?”, I respond, “Yes, they do. They pay me to tell you exactly how I feel about this university.”

I tell the truth every time.