This article was originally published prior to June 2, 2013. Due to a change in the content management systems, the initial publication date in not available. 

When people go on vacation, whether to a sandy beach or snow-capped mountain, it’s always nice to be able to take home a memory in the form of a souvenir.

But the form of these collectible mementos takes on different shapes for some Baker University students.

Sophomore Samantha Crane began collecting shot glasses on a trip to Maryland when she was 17. Since then, any time Crane goes on a trip, she makes sure to find at least one shot glass to add to her collection back home.

“I always look for at least one, and then I usually find more than that,” she said. “But I usually look at least for one that I can take back with me.”

Two years later, after different trips and getting ones as gifts, Crane owns 26 shot glasses.

She enjoys collecting shot glasses because of the variety of unique ones she can buy, in addition to helping her remember all her trips.

At some point she would like to obtain more shot glasses from states she’s been to, or big cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, but as to a number of shot glasses she wants in her collection, she isn’t sure.

“I don’t really have a goal,” she said. “It’s pretty much just as many as I can fit in one place without my mom going crazy of how many I have in the room.”

Senior Hela Kawas began collecting figurines of famous statues and buildings in 2008.

“I just started collecting them when I started traveling around the world,” she said.

Kawas gets little figurines of whatever well-known landmarks would be featured on postcards from famous cities.

“Everywhere I travel to I try to get one from major cities and major tourist destination spots,” she said. “Usually the place that you see on all the postcards, I’ll get a little figurine of that, and sometimes a postcard to go with it. So, I have a lot of postcards, too.”

Some of her figurines include the Statue of Liberty from New York City, the Coliseum from Rome and the Statue of David from Florence.

So far, Kawas has collected about 10 figurines.

“It’s not very many,” she said. “But, you’ve got to start somewhere.”

Senior Erin Rogers’ collection of spoons from all over the world even began before she was born. Her great-grandmother started the collection in 1905, and when her great-grandmother died in 2006, the collection was given to her. The original collection had about 150 spoons in it, and in four years, Rogers has collected over 50 more.

“I think I have a little over 200 of them, but people … get me spoons whenever they go anywhere, from anywhere,” she said. “So, now I just have spoons from everywhere.”

Some of her more unique spoons are one from Guam that is solid ivory, a couple from castles in England and a gold spoon from Italy that dates back to the early 1900s. She even wears a ring made from a spoon.

Most of the spoons in Rogers’ collection she got from friends. But she also likes collecting spoons from places she has been to. So, wherever spoons are sold as souvenirs, she is sure to buy one.

“Wherever I go, I get a spoon as well,” she said. “Even if it’s just, you know, T-Rex: (A) Prehistoric Family Adventure at The Legends. They sell spoons, so I have one from there. I just get them from everywhere.”