Campus Tours: From one Sam to the Next

Earlier this week Sam Fein-Helfman, a rising senior at W&M, invited me on a tour — well not exactly.  She invited me to lunch and I invited myself on her tour.  No matter the version of the story I arrived at the Admission Office at 10:30 this morning to go on her tour.  When I walked into the information session Wendy Livingston was answering a few more questions (she has a very impressive and polished speaking style).  Sam and I exchanged smiles and I joined her tour.  She was terrific!  Full of energy and Tribe pride flowed from every sentence she spoke.  I walked toward the back of the tour and quietly interacted with parents.  I met a man from Lynchburg.  He graduated from W&M in 1974 and of course he knew Sam Sadler and of course he loved him.  Sam asked me to speak about service opps at W&M and I obliged (I loved it).  She showed us all around ancient, old and new campus never tripping and reporting on all sorts of traditions.  She is a good story teller.

We are lucky to have talented students like Sam.  She and the other admissions interns tell the story of W&M.  They report on the past, but more importantly they offer a glimpse to the future of W&M.  What they care about will in large part be what W&M is about in the near future.  Just like the Sam  (Sadler that is), Sam (the tour guide that is), loves W&M.  As Sam reported over his 41 years working at W&M, “those who come here belong here.”  Sam (the tour guide) relayed that message quite nicely.  Sam would be proud.