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Take Your Child To Work Day

Take Your Child to Work Day: April 27, 2023

The WorkLife Office is pleased to announce the return of the highly attended Take Your Child to Work Day on Thursday, April 27, 2023, which is in connection with the National Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day. MSU employees are encouraged to bring their child, or a special child in their life, to celebrate the many career, educational and entertainment events we offer right here at MSU! This year’s theme is “Working Better Together.”

What is Take Your Child Work Day?

This annual event highlights the university’s support for its employees, their families and all MSU community members. MSU Units and Departments will host tours and activities geared towards kids ages 8-16 and younger ages are welcome. Attendees will want to plan for a day spent visiting the places they will enjoy. More details to come!

MSU Units/Departments- Are you interested in participating? Complete the Department/Unit Sign Up

· Host a tour of your office or department

· Present a career exploration program or other activity

· Donate unit branded items for gift bags and prizes for the participants

· Sign up to volunteer

· Encourage members of your unit to bring a child to participate

Attendees: Attendees Register Here

Though registration is not required, it is highly encouraged to receive up to date information about the event. If you register, you will also be placed in a drawing for a special gift to be announced after the event!

Questions or comments, please contact Rachel Perez (gonza243@msu.edu), WorkLife Consultant for the WorkLife Office.

Safety Tips for the Day:

Check in advance that your Department and your supervisor are comfortable with children in your facilities. While the University does not require any specific paperwork or waivers to participate, it’s important that you honor your division’s policies on children in the workplace. There may be safety or security issues in neighboring areas that need to be respected.
You must accompany your child at all times throughout their visit to any areas on campus. Don’t assume another MSU staff member can take responsibility for your child/children. If you plan to take more than one child to the event, it is recommended that you arrange for a second adult to accompany one of your children to the event.
Plan ahead! Do a sweep of your work space to ensure that any hazardous or dangerous equipment, chemicals, biohazards, or machinery are safely out of the way. Also, make sure your colleagues are aware of your special visitor and keep kids away from others and their work spaces.
Your kids will be curious about the tools and equipment in your office, make sure to use discretion when letting them explore.
Kids need protection too – have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on hand for your young visitors if they will be exploring any equipment or materials that require PPE.

Here's what others have said!

This is a great event and we encourage all interested MSU faculty, staff and administrators to participate. But don’t take our word for it. Here are some feedback from past participants:

Why did you chose to attend?

I think it’s a great way to showcase what MSU is about and get kids excited about different avenues for their future. I also love spending the day with her and seeing her motivated by what we do. It’s one of my absolute favorite days here.
It was an opportunity to see MSU in a completely different way and to spend time with my family.
It’s fun the learn about the different departments on campus and teach my child about the awesome place where we all work.
All of the amazing things to see for my family. I wanted to see what my colleagues across campus were doing and I wanted to expose my daughter more to MSU.
I wasn’t going to participate because my child is only 3, but then a colleague let me know they bring their younger children. I’m glad I did!
It is one of our favorite days of the year! Right up there with family vacations and major holidays!
MSU has so many amazing departments exposing my children to careers they’ve never even heard of! This has become one of my favorite events, it’s amazing exposure for my children!

What was the best part?

My boys played co-anchors in the Spartan Newsroom and Virtual Reality in the Greenhouse.
The opportunity to experience campus with your child and see how incredible this University is. It makes me very proud to work here and show my daughter how great it is.
All of the activities that we had visited gave good information for the children, whether it’s career related or even just general knowledge in that area. I think they are all educational and benefit both my daughter and even myself.
The opportunity to experience campus with your child and see how incredible this University is. It makes me very proud to work here and show my daughter how great it is.
All of the activities that we had visited gave good information for the children, whether it’s career-related or even just general knowledge in that area. I think they are all educational and benefit both my daughter and even myself.
For staff – at the end, after learning more about the great programs on campus, I feel more pride for working at MSU
Seeing my children in a different light and learning right alongside them!

What did the kids learn?

If I go to MSU I will totally live at the library. I learned that I can trust the police and that their dogs come from Germany.
I learned that being a journalist is fun. I learned about a tech camp for girls through Comm Arts. I like Dantonios double chocolate fudge fake at the Dairy store. I am not afraid of public speaking.
They learned we have a lot more horses than we thought, and there is ALOT of walking at college.
How to shoot a bow
The library has the largest comic book collection in the world.
The library has over 7 million books.
Ice skating is hard.
Building a tower out of spaghetti noodles is really hard.
Learned about game design and keeping plastics out of the lakes.
They learned that they can stop by the horse farm most days and visit w horses and they learned about 3D printing at library
How caffeine works, how to edit video, how milk is made, and so much more!
There’s an elevator!
Cows have 4 stomachs
She learned about heartbeats, arteries, veins, pulse, a very interesting Seeing AI app, how not to fall victim to phishing emails and computer viruses, power generated at MSU and the constellation.
How many cool jobs there are with technology and how many MSU students who are working in tech.
That there is a girls who code program and some great coding camps for the future.
So many things. How much happens that you don’t know because there are people working “behind the scenes”. Also, you can do pretty much anything here.

This is a great event and we encourage all interested MSU faculty, staff and administrators to participate. But don’t take our word for it. Here are some feedback from past participants: