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MSU employees take their children to work

April 28, 2011
	<p>Grand Ledge, Mich., resident Vicky Bueno “oohs” as a butterfly rests on her finger while her mom, physical plant employee April Bueno, watches the interaction Thursday at the Butterfly House in Plant &amp; Soil Sciences. Bueno’s daughters spent the day with her for “Take Your Child to Work Day!”</p>

Grand Ledge, Mich., resident Vicky Bueno “oohs” as a butterfly rests on her finger while her mom, physical plant employee April Bueno, watches the interaction Thursday at the Butterfly House in Plant & Soil Sciences. Bueno’s daughters spent the day with her for “Take Your Child to Work Day!”

Photo by Kat Petersen | The State News

Children of MSU employees came to campus prepared to do work Thursday in celebration of Take Your Child To Work Day.

More than 300 children took part in 25 events and tours held throughout the day on campus, said Jodi Roberto Hancock, the educational program coordinator at the Women’s Resource Center and head chair of the event’s planning committee.

“It’s a national day that started as Take Our Daughters To Work Day, as a way to expose girls to a variety of career options especially in nontraditional fields,” she said. “We changed (MSU’s celebration of the day) to take your child to work day. … It’s now inclusive of boys and girls.”

The theme of the this year’s event was Spartans in Training: Inventing the Future, as a reminder that it is never too early to prepare for the future, Hancock said.

“The neat thing about the day is (the) career exploration (and) life explorations,” she said. “(This) includes education and career but also components of work life balance and community service. It really talks about how to have a balanced life and think about your future.”

The event hosted tours of the MSU Libraries, the MSU Dairy Processing Plant and Store and the MSU Bug House, said Christian Bird, a 14-year-old Bath, Mich., resident.

“(The) Bug House was the most interesting place to hang out,” he said. “I’m really interested in entomology, so the Bug House was really what I liked about this place.”

The children not only get to see their own parents at work but also get the chance to see others at work and explore various career paths firsthand, said Tamara Reid Bush, the director of the Biomechanical Design Research Laboratory in the College of Engineering.

“(The children) are going to be exposed to so much, and they can do any one of those things,” she said. “Especially the people that they (saw during the tours) now doing their jobs, we’re just like them.”

Although the day advocates for the inclusion of both sexes in the work place, Bush said she wanted to share her experiences with the young girls as a scientist.

“Research shows that (young girls) start thinking it’s not cool to be good at math, to get into school or the science fair — those are boy things,” she said. “I represent the female scientist: I did math, I’m good at physics and it’s okay even though you’re a girl.”

Tina Bird, a level III assistant in the Department of Animal Science Department, has been bringing her children to the special day for four years and appreciates that MSU seems to cater to the education of the children, she said.

“There is always something different that we learn and he learns,” she said.
“They think of everything, and they have a lot of good programs to entice the kids to come here — they really think of the kids.”

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