25 years of bringing our kids to work

The Take our Daughters to Work movement started as a job shadow day, but early ESF organizers realized that much would be out of context—and children shouldn’t be participating in meetings with privileged discussions (administrative meetings, thesis/dissertation defenses). So, the ESF Women's Caucus built a structured program, asking presenters to share some aspect of their ESF-fostered field in an interactive way—commonly through debate, models, and scaled down experiments.  For the past 15 years, sons have participated as well as daughters and kids have spent a rotation or two learning about a life skill or recreational pursuit, also shared by a member of the ESF community.

Our 2018 program welcomed children from 18(!) area schools. Parents brought 19 children; 4 came with a grandparent, sibling or aunt; 8 with family friends.  Faculty enrolled 6 children (4 of their own; 2 friends), but as has been the pattern since we started tracking, the bulk of the participants were enrolled by staff members from across campus.

We thank presenters:
 ֍Plant History – Megan O’Keefe, Forest and Natural Resources Management ֍  

 ֍Wind Turbines – Maura Stefl and  Brittany Wong, Experiential Learning and Outreach֍

֍ Yoga – Mary Hagemann ֍

֍ Great Lakes Food Web – Stacy Furgal, Environmental and Forest Biology ֍ 
֍ Stormwater Infrastructure – Environmental Resource Engineering Club (ERE Club) & NY Water Environment Association (NYWEA) ֍ 
֍Designing a Park – Prof. Maren King, Savy Kep, Shaghayegh Shahhosseini, Olivia Pinner, Remi Lynch, Maggie Pasanen, Landscape Architecture & the Center for Community Design Research֍
֍Analyzing Human-Wildlife Conflict – Dr. Andrea Parker, Environmental Studies֍
More photos available here.

We also thank:

• Rock star chaperones:  Brad Fierke, Vizma Leimanis, Makayla Thornton, Kanika Jakhmola, Steven Grunwald, and Hollis Harrington; 
• Prep team:  Heather Engelman and Nichole Angell
• Lunch team:  Kanika Jakhmola, Dawn Jewell, Caroline Bailey, Linda McGuigan and Josh Arnold
• photographers: Heather Engelman and Paul Otteson
• the many offices that contributed stuff for kids to carry out activities:  ALUMNI RELATIONS and the ESF CAMPUS BOOKSTORE, pencils and magnets; SU BOOKSTORE, mugs; COMMUNICATIONS, string backpacks; OPEN ACADEMY, puzzle pens; PROVOST’s OFFICE and ESF WOMEN’S CAUCUS, lunch, snacks, color printing, potting media; GREENHOUSE, pots and space; CHESTNUT PROJECT, seed; PHYSICAL PLANT and MORRISVILLE AUXILLIARY SERVICES, set & clean up; COPY CENTER, B/W printing.  Consistent with the 2018 national program theme,  each of these individuals, organizations and offices are, indeed, agents of positive change