Humans of Oxford: Kendal Lane

Originally published on TheMiamiStudent.net

Kendal Lane introduces herself to the small group standing around her. 

Her sneakers are Miami red. 

Photo by Connor Moriarty (@connormoriarty_photo)

She’s a junior marketing major, pre-dental. The prospective high school seniors — here with their families to visit campus for the day — introduce themselves, too.

She leads everyone down the sidewalk, flying through a list of the offices in the Campus Avenue Building, describing each without hesitation. 

She leads us through McGuffey and King, then out and across Academic Quad. 

“You won’t regret it if you come here,” says a passerby. 

“Exactly!” Kendal says. 

She outlines academics, traditions, everything you could ever want to know about ID cards or King Library. 

The parents nod along with everything she says. 

They ask if she came in knowing her major, if the town embraces the university, how the football team does, about her favorite place to eat on campus. 

No, she fell in love with dentistry after a job shadowing. Yes, Oxford is a true college town. Well, we’re more of a hockey school. First Stop, hands down. 

We walk through Armstrong and at least five people wave at her. This is what she loves about Miami. That it’s small enough to see familiar faces, but big enough to meet new people every day.

Then she leads us to the Sundial, across Central Quad, into a dorm room, through Goggin and the Rec. 

The families ask for restaurant recommendations Uptown before they head out — Bagel & Deli, La Piñata, 45 East, you can’t go wrong, she says. 

We walk together, back to where the campus tour began two hours earlier. 

Kendal thanks me for coming on her tour. I tell her that I appreciated it even more as a senior. 

“Oh my gosh,” she says.  “It’s like full circle.” 

We say goodbye and she heads back into the CAB building, passing a white sign by the door that reads, “Welcome to Miami University!”