Quo Vadis is the student organization whose members give tours of the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh. We are also one of the oldest clubs on campus, celebrating 80 years in November 2024!

Both! Giving tours is a paid activity, and you are also paid for time spent learning about the rooms and representing the rooms at cultural festivals. If you want to immerse yourself in all of the cultures here in Pittsburgh and on our campus while getting paid to do so, this is the perfect job for you. As a club, we also run fun events for our guides throughout the school year. We hold a "jezyk" session each week, host themed tours once a semester, and travel to Washington, DC each spring. We also have many social events throughout the semesters that help build the community among the guides in addition to simply being a ton of fun!

Training occurs throughout the fall semester with the goal that new guides will start giving tours by the beginning of the spring semester. We expect trainees to attend at least 2 training sessions per week, each being 1.5 - 2 hours long. Training sessions are flexible, with sessions offered every day of the week at varying times. We will teach you information about all of our rooms, and provide a space to practice your presentation skills.

Yes, we try to make Quo Vadis as flexible as possible. We offer trainings every day of the week at varying times so that you can attend the sessions that best suit your schedule. We encourage you to switch the training sessions you are going to a few times so you can see all rooms, since only certain rooms are available at each time. Once you start giving tours, you can choose how many tours you give per week and at what times. Our tour coordinator assigns tours to guides based on guide availability and preferred frequency.

Apply now on Talent Center by clicking here! After applying, you will hear from the tour coordinator where you will complete a brief interview starting the second week of classes before proceeding with onboarding. You will then train throughout the fall, test in December, and give tours starting in the spring semester.

“Quo Vadis” is a Latin phrase that, when translated, means “Where are you going?”. This phrase is well known for being from a story in the apocryphal Acts of Peter and Paul, found in the Bible. In the story, Peter is fleeing Rome when he meets Jesus carrying his cross. Peter said to Jesus, "Quo Vadis, Domine?" to which Jesus responded, "I am going to Rome to be crucified." Peter here asks, "were you not crucified once for all?" Jesus answered, "I saw you fleeing and wished to be crucified instead of you." Peter then said, "Lord, I go; I fulfill your command.'' This story was the basis of a Pulitzer prize winning novel, Quo Vadis, written by Henry Sienkiewicz in 1905. We chose this as our name because of the way that you can “travel” to different places within the rooms!

The Cathedral of Learning was built over a period of twelve years, and was finished in 1937. The very first Nationality Rooms were finished and dedicated in the next year, 1938.

We had five rooms dedicated in the year 1938, and so they are all the oldest! These are the German, Russian, Swedish, Scottish, and Early American Rooms.

The Phillippine Nationality Room! This room was dedicated in June of 2019.

Unfortunately, there are no restrooms on the first floor of the cathedral. There are restrooms located on every other floor.