From the minute he arrived on campus from Austria, Patrick Bock '00 knew that he was going to love being at Yale. By the end of his freshman year, he was so enchanted with the campus that he applied to become a tour guide for the Visitor Information Center, a job that would give him the opportunity to tell others "what a great place this University is," he says.
Mr. Bock was "overjoyed" when he learned that he was among the dozen or so students -- out of some 100 applicants -- selected for the job, which he officially began at the start of this school year. As one of 27 tour guides this semester, he introduces groups of visitors to the campus two or three times each week, including leading a well-packed tour every Saturday afternoon.
As part of the application process for his job, Mr. Bock first monitored about half a dozen tours last spring that were led by experienced guides. Then, he had to give a practice tour, during which he was evaluated. While some applicants worry about not having enough to say during the approximately 75-minute tour, Mr. Bock says his greatest challenge was fitting in everything he wanted to say within the allotted time.
"I went over by about 45 minutes because there was so much I wanted to tell my group, but I guess it didn't really count much against me, because I still got the job," he notes.
When giving a tour, Mr. Bock does not simply recite the "facts" about Yale that he has learned. His presentations combine his own knowledge and experience of the University, his enthusiasm for the place and interesting Yale legends and lore.
It is, in fact, the legends about Yale that most interest people as they travel the campus on foot to see the residential colleges and their courtyards, and such landmarks as Harkness Tower, Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, famous Yale statues and other sites, says Mr. Bock. "All of the tour guides tell people about the long-held belief that if students walk through the Memorial Gate before Commencement they won't graduate, or how rubbing the toe of the statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey brings good luck," he notes.
He was surprised to discover that, despite all the walking involved, campus tourists never seem to lose interest during the tour. "I've always noticed how people taking tours in Europe, say of a famous Gothic chapel, for example, end up getting bored and start talking among themselves," he comments. "But I've found that people are really interested in Yale, and they continue to be enthusiastic right through to the end."
At Yale, Mr. Bock plans to major in economics and international studies. He is a member of the Yale International Relations Association, through which he serves as a delegate at collegiate Model United Nations conferences. His other extracurricular activities include playing intramural tennis, basketball and squash for his residential college, Pierson College. He also works 10 hours a week in the University's Development Office and spends an additional several hours a week at the Visitor Information Center, where he also answers both telephone and in-person queries and greets visitors.
In addition to meeting new people, Mr. Bock says one of the highlights of his job as a tour guide is having an occasional chance to demonstrate his fluency in German and French. He recently led a tour for a group of German and American visitors, which he gave in German and then translated into English.
But his favorite part of the job is being able to interest high school students in Yale. "It sounds kind of corny, but Yale has given me so much that I really feel the need to tell people how wonderful it is to be a student here," says the sophomore. "I guess in that sense I am kind of like an ambassador for Yale. I get paid to do this thing that I love, but even if I weren't getting paid a penny for it, I still would have wanted this job."