May 9, 2025 • 30 mins
Every year, thousands of kids across the U.S. will visit workplaces to gain first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to have a job and work with others. Junior Achievement, which leads Take a Child to Work Day and Beyond, has expanded the program to give kids who can’t visit a parent’s workplace for one reason or another the flexibility to experience a visit at other times throughout the year. On this episode, we're talking to Gina Gibbs-Foster, VP of Corporate Communications at Staples to learn about their program.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. Every year, thousands of kids across the US
will visit workplaces to gain first hand knowledge of what
it's like to have a job and work with others.
Junior Achievement, which leads Take a Child to Work Day
and Beyond, has expanded the program to give kids who
cannot visit a parent's workplace for one reason or another
(00:27):
flexibility to experience a visit at other times throughout the year.
On this episode, we're talking to Gina Gibbs Foster, the
vice president of Corporate Communications at Staples, to learn more
about their program. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad
you could be here with us today to talk about this.
I love this subject, taking your kid to work. I
think we need to be doing more of that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I completely agree. It's all about.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Exposure, yes, exactly. So why don't we start by telling
the audience a little bit about what qualifies you to
talk about them today?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah. Well, I'm here today representing Staples, which is one
of the leading experts in the world of work. We
work quite regularly with a wide range of businesses across
the country as well as schools, educator students, and so
we are really excited to partner with an organization like
Junior Achievement, which is really focused on giving young people
(01:23):
the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success,
plan for the future, make smart academic and economic choices,
and that all ties into them understanding the world of work.
So we're happy to apply our expertise in our presence
in many communities across the country to help Junior Achievement
to fulfill its mission, which we feel is a very
(01:45):
important one. I'm also very pleased and proud to serve
on the board of Junior Achievement of Greater Boston, close
to where we're headquartered. So I'm doubly interested and excited
about this topic and really think it's a key part
of the future for this country.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, most definitely, And I know we kind of by
the time we were able to get this show in
the air, we've missed Take your Child to Work Day,
which I believe was April twenty fourth, But I still
think it's important and I think that you know, more
people need to be doing it. Do you know the
history of take your Child to Work Day?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Absolutely? So take your Child to Work Day. It actually
began back in the nineteen nineties is take your Daughter
to Work Day, and that was a really important initiative
at the time, focused on giving young ladies exposure to
the world of work and different career opportunities that were
out there. Since then, the program has really evolved and
(02:43):
now Take a Child to Work Day and Beyond has
evolved to include all children, even those who might not
have a parent who can take them to work on
the specific day. And what will happen going forward with
Junior Achievements involvement is young people from across the country
will be going into workplaces, whether it was this past
Take a Child to Work Day or in the future,
(03:05):
and they will be shadowing parents, guardians, even volunteer professionals.
We had a good number of Staples associates who volunteer
to let children shadow them at work at our Staples headquarters,
for example, and all of that is being brought to
bear now by Junior Achievement. So Junior Achievement began leading
the initiative this year. Staples was very proud to be
(03:27):
the presenting sponsor this year and we're excited about where
it's going and what's nice is that it's now Take
a Child to Work Day and Beyond, which takes the
emphasis beyond the day itself to year round opportunities for
young people to really get a good hands on look
at the world of work. So, whether you were able
to participate on April twenty fourth or not, there are
(03:48):
so many ways to get involved in so many resources.
And there's a lot actually that can be found on
the website, which can be found by searching take a
Child to Work in Junior Achievement. It's really a year
round opportunity. Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And would you say this is mainly something that's done
in large corporations or is it for everybody?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's for everybody, businesses of all types. What's interesting is
that whether you're talking a large corporation, a small business,
it could even be a radio station, Take a Child
to Work and Beyond is about giving young people an
up close look at what work looks like in all
of its different forms. Kids these days tend to gravitate
toward the jobs that they see or that they're exposed to.
(04:30):
So it used to be back when there were a
lot of those criminal shows on TV, people wanted to
go into criminal investigations, or they wanted to do CSI
types of jobs. These days, a lot of young people,
including my own kids, have expressed an interest in being
social media influencers. That's great for those kids that pans
out for but for many children that's not really their future.
(04:53):
So by going into a workplace, young people can really
see the wide range of jobs that are out there
and connect those with their interests and their talents. For example,
if a young person really is interested in the world
of social media and they think they have a passion
for how to use that medium in order to reach
audiences and influence them, rather than going down the path
(05:15):
of trying to be the next great social media influencer,
have they considered a job like a job in digital
marketing or marketing itself. Have they considered maybe the technical
side of that information technology is huge cybersecurity. So it's
all about expanding the jobs that they see so that
they can see what as out there that might be
(05:35):
a very realistic and viable opportunity for them that they
may never have thought of. And what's beautiful is that
for the parents and the adults and the volunteers who
get to show off their work on take a child
to work day or beyond. They get to reconnect with
what made them excited about their jobs and their career paths.
And it really is just this whole rekindling of excitement
(05:57):
around the types of jobs that are out there today
that are viable, they're a lucrative, and that are really
conducive to economic success in this world.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I love that, and I really have not given this
any thought until you said it. I've worked in television
and radio stations, and I do remember taking my kids
to work because I was When I worked in TV,
I did a Halloween costume of the like popular costumes
this Year segment and I used my kids as models
(06:26):
along with some other people's kids, and so they got
to experience that. And then in radio, you know, the
first day of work at a new job in a
new town, and I had not been able to line
up childcare yet, and I thought about it and I
was like, Okay, I can either call in and say
I don't have my you know, childcare lined up, or
I can just show up with my kids and see
what happens. Because they were at that point used to
(06:47):
being in studios and things, and I took them and
it turned out to be a great joke between me
and my former boss because he was like, is it
like take your kid to work day or something. I
was like, well, it could be, you know, like right,
but yeah, and I had thought about it. But my
youngest is very interested in maybe not news and that
(07:10):
type of thing, but entertainment. And I wonder how much
that has to do with him being on a set
and you know, recording a commercial or whatever, you know,
for radio that I hadn't thought about that. Is there
any industry that you can't do this?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Is there any history that you can't do this, any.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Any industry that you know, maybe you wouldn't want to
take your kid to work?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Boy. I think it's so important for children to have
exposure to different types of workplaces, regardless of where they are.
I've worked in a number of different industries. They all
have different facets of them that can be fascinating and
in some cases, if somebody is working in an industry
where you just want to be mindful of having children
in that workplace. For example, if you're working at a
(07:54):
manufacturing location, or you're working at some place where they're
producing products that might have some special safety requirements around
that you probably want to make sure that you've cleared
it with your workplace before you bring your children in.
So we do recommend that if parents are guardians or
adults are interested in bringing in young people to their workplace,
(08:16):
that they check in with their employer first to make
sure that they're participating and take a child to work
day and beyond, and or that they've cleared opportunities to
bring their children in outside of that. If companies are participating,
most employers have already designated someone to coordinate children's visits
if they're doing it on a designated day. They may
have already identified a specific part of the workplace that
(08:38):
would be great for children to come in and see,
or they might have lined up volunteers to come talk
about their work in a specific part of that workplace.
And there are lots of ways that companies can modify
and adapt their workplace to make them child friendly. For example,
when we have children come to visit us at our
Staples headquarters, we know that not every child wants to
(08:58):
necessarily sit and want somebody in their office working on spreadsheets,
but they could be very interested in seeing how we
design and put together our products. They could be very
interested in going in to see the cybersecurity room, where
we have people looking for those bad actors online who
might be out there trying to do bad things on
the internet. They may be very interested in going to
(09:20):
visit our marketing group where you have some really cool
hip people doing really cool hip things and coming up
with new promotions and slogans and campaigns that are very interesting.
So finding those kid friendly opportunities in any workplace is huge,
but it does help to check with the employer just
to make sure that they're always looking out for the
children's safety and as well who's going to be there
(09:42):
to look after them while they're on site so there
are no surprises. But any any company should be able
to participate.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Would you
say that you know there's maybe an age limit for kids,
because obviously the older kids who are inching towards you know,
their careers themselve that's going to make a lot of sense.
But the younger kids, you know, is there an age
where you would recommend no younger than fill in the blank.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, so I know that Junior Achievement focuses a lot
on children from ages kindergarten through twelve primarily, and obviously
when you get to middle school high school, you're starting
to think much more seriously about potential future career paths
or what do I really want to be when I
grow up. So there's a lot of merit to that
hands on workplace experience in that middle school to high
(10:33):
school range in particular, but to the point of giving
children an eye opening view of where do our parents
or guardians go during the day, What does that workplace
even look like? Are there people who look like me
in that workplace? Could I see myself there? Back and
start at a very early age, I remember going in
with my parents to work when I was very small
(10:55):
and coming away with a very clear impression of, Hey,
this is what a workplace even looks like. This is
what a corporate office looks like. These are the different
types of people that you see there, this is how
they dress, and those types of exposure opportunities are very
valuable and can certainly be made very age appropriate, even
if in a workplace they're bringing in younger children. We've
(11:18):
had similar programs in our corporate headquarters at Staples where
we brought in very young children, and there's a healthy
dose of here's what we do, but made age appropriate,
followed by balloon animals and fun and hanging out with
our young people at work and just seeing some of
the cooler things they do that are very appropriate and
interesting for young people. So definitely in that eighth grade
(11:38):
through high school range, it's more of a serious career
discussion for them potentially, But any of the workplace experiences
can be scaled and back to the point of take
a Child to Work day and beyond throughout the year,
whether it's on a particular day or not. Junior Achievement
has a lot of resources that can help to bring
(11:58):
the workplace to life for young people, and all of
that can be found on either the Junior Achievement website,
which is JA dot org, or you can look specifically
at the Junior Achievement Take a Child to Work Day
website which can be found by searching take a Child
to Work and Junior Achievement. Tons of resources for parents,
for businesses and other interested volunteers.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Okay, I love that. Would you say that taking your
child to work can have a positive effect on helping
them understand why they have to learn what they learn
in school.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Absolutely, and that's one of the key benefits. A lot
of times in school, children have a challenging time connecting
what they're learning in school with what they are potentially
going to be asked to do in the future in
their workplace. They may not realize, for example, that if
they do want to be in the social media space,
Let's say you want to be in a job that
(12:51):
involves digital marketing, well you need to understand the math
the numbers behind that business role, and so the maths
skills that they're learning are very import into that statistics,
a lot of those things. So a nice thing about
junior Achievement is that throughout the year they're reinforcing the
connection between what children are learning in school with hands
on practical applications for that in the workplace, and by
(13:15):
coming into a workplace for take a child to work day,
it really helps to bring it home because now the
students can have conversations, whether it's with their parent or
guardian or an employee volunteer, what types of skills do
you use on a day to day basis in this job.
If I see somebody in the workplace and they're doing
something that to me looks really cool as a child,
(13:37):
I could ask what kind of things made you want
to explore this career path. What are the skills that
you use every day? What did you study in school?
Would you do that again? And those kinds of conversations
can light a spark and a young person that will
ten times more than any conversation with their parent or
their teacher, influence that child's thinking about what they need
(13:58):
to focus on if they want to do that type
of work when they grow up.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I like that, So let's talk about the nitty griddy
of this concept. You know a lot of people may
not choose to do this simply because it's not an
excused absence, and I know that's a big deal when
it comes to you know, school aged children in public school.
Would you recommend that it's worth that absence or do
(14:24):
you recommend they go on a day where they already
are going to be early release or teacher work day?
What's your recommendation there?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
A lot really depends on the student, the parent, and
the situation. So really what's great about take a child
to work day and beyond is unlike in the past,
it's not dependent on any one day. So if someone
has a student who's interested in coming into the workplace,
but that particular day they've got a major exam. It
(14:55):
is junior or senior year of high school. If they
don't pass that exam, that's going to have some real
consequences for their GPA and their college prospects. That may
not be their day to come into the workplace. They
might be sick that day, the parent who would host
them might have other important meetings and it's okay. So
if someone is interested in participating, whether it's on April
(15:15):
twenty fourth or beyond, we really encourage them to connect
with their local Junior Achievement office to learn more about
ways that they can participate and bring those same experiences
to their children. Or they can visit the JAA website,
which again gives lots of other opportunities to find ways
to bring that same experience to the child, whether it's
(15:36):
bringing the child to the workplace or in some cases
the parent might want to go to them. And Junior
Achievement does offer opportunities for parents, guardians, volunteers to volunteer
in classrooms, mentor children even talk about the type of
work they do at a school, and those are other
ways to participate beyond the day itself. So I would
(15:57):
encourage anyone who is interested in learning more and participate,
even if they can't participate on the actual Take a
Child to Work Day to learn more by visiting JA
dot org or again, get some additional resources on the
take a Child to Work Day and beyond experience by
searching for take a Child to Work in Junior Achievement,
and there are some additional ideas there for how to
(16:18):
bring that experience to life for young people, whether they
can be there for the actual day or they need
to come beyond that day.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Okay, I like that. I assume that on this website,
you know there's tips and tricks for how to talk
to your boss about it. Does that also include tips
and tricks and suggestions on if you wanted to make
it a day for all employees to come and maybe
you didn't mind being the organizer? Is that included?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Absolutely? So. If a business is interested in hosting a
Take a Child to Work Day, there are resources on
the website for businesses and they can look in there
and figure out how to connect with Junior Achievement how
to host the day. We had considered at Staples whether
we wanted to have the day on April twenty fourth itself.
We decided to do that because that worked out very
(17:08):
well for our purposes, But you could easily replicate the
same experience on another day, doing the same types of
things using the same resources that are available through junior achievement.
In our case, for example, we're hosting a take a
Child to Work Day event on the actual day, or
we've hosted on the actual day during what is the
(17:29):
Massachusetts spring break week from many of our public schools.
Perfect timing because so many of our children are already
going to be out of school for break parents maybe
looking for things to do with them, especially those high
school aged kids who may not be able to get
work hours for one week, but certainly don't want to
be sitting in camps with the quote babies during that time.
(17:51):
So perfect timing for us to host a few dozen
high school students to come in and get a good
feel for the world to work with us. But that
business recur on the Take a Child to Work Day
website is priceless because it really makes it turn key
for businesses to figure out how can they host a
similar type of event on any given day and make
(18:12):
it meaningful a good experience for the students, a good
experience for the volunteers, and a good experience for the
business as well.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Okay, so we've talked about the benefits for the kids,
would you say there's a benefit also for the parents.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Absolutely. So parents sometimes run into an issue where I'll
speak for myself and I'm sure others can relate. Children
don't always consider their parents to be the ultimate authority
on things. I know officially, with my kids, I don't
know anything until they've heard it validated by a friend,
right somebody else in their world, or they've seen it
on social media. So sometimes having a third party that
(18:49):
can reinforce key points, like you know, it's really important
for you to focus on your poor education and math. Yes,
that English class matter is because if you want to
be in this field, you're going to need those skills. Yes,
it is important for you to develop your public speaking skills. Yes,
it's important for you to aim for this type of
GPA if you want to go to that type of college.
(19:11):
Having that reinforced by somebody who's doing something that that
child thinks they may want to do is priceless. Anytime
I have an opportunity for my children to speak to
one of my colleagues at work, or to see you know,
me in action. It just speaks volumes in ways that
it's really hard for a teacher or a parent to
(19:33):
get across to a young person. It's easy for a
young person to dismiss the authority figures in the like lives,
like their teachers or their parents, and they may think
might just not get it. But when you see someone
who looks young, hip and cool, who's echoing those same messages,
it just really brings it home. So I would say
the biggest benefit at all of all for the parents
is it's not just your voice, it's other people's voices
(19:56):
reinforcing those same things, making smart academic and e choices matters.
You've heard it now from your parents or guardians. You've
heard it from your teachers, you've heard it from the
junior achievement staff that you've interacted with, and now you're
hearing it from others. It all adds up.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I love that too, that's so true. And I also
wonder is there a benefit like let's say you know
you have multiple children, maybe you take one child each
year and you get that one on one bonding, And
I would imagine that that also benefits the employer, just
because we all want a better work life balance. Wouldn't
(20:32):
you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Absolutely. What we've find is anytime we have our employees volunteering,
particularly with junior achievement, and they get a chance to
show off their workplace and they get to show off
what we do and why they're so proud of it,
they are extra bonded to their company for having given
them the experience and the opportunity to do that, to
(20:54):
show off their workplace to their children or to other children,
to talk about excitedly the type of work they're doing.
That has huge benefits from an employee engagement perspective, and
every employer wants that. And to your point, what's nice
about the take a child to work day and beyond approaches?
Parents and guardians no longer have to choose. When it
(21:16):
was take your daughter to work day and I have
one of each, I have a son and a daughter.
I would feel bad leaving my son at home because
he's very interested in the world of work too. Now
I don't have to choose. I can bring either or
or both. And because it's not necessarily tied to any
one day, we can have either or child come at
any given time, and we don't have to juggle their
(21:38):
schedules or my schedule to make that happen. So this
is a really very inclusive approach that enables any and
all children to participate, make it work with the parents'
schedules and the way they want to work, and at
the same time give employer as an opportunity to really
have those employees feel even more loyal to, engaged with,
(21:58):
and inspired by their company for having given them the
opportunity to share it that way.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I like that. So let me ask you this, is
there any downside to this? And if there is, which
I doubt there is, But if there is, how do
we deal with that?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, the only downside I can think of is that
kids dream even bigger. And I know I've had my
children and to come visit my workplace in the past
and they're ready to put their feet up on the
desk and get the things going. So I think we
have to also manage their expectations around you know, the
hard work and the do's earning that comes with entering
the world of work. And that's where our organizations like
(22:33):
Junior Achievement help to provide a good reality check as well,
but there really is never a downside to exposing young
people to the real life world of work, to the
economic choices they're going to need to make today and
in the future, and then preparing them to be able
to make smart choices. That's a win for them, it's
a win for their parents and guardians, it's a win
(22:55):
for businesses, and it's a win for the country.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah. I agree with that. And it sounds like you've
been through a few of these. Is there one that
sticks out with a particularly fond memory?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
There is so so a while ago with this particular
take a child to work concept. I remember bringing my
daughter into my workplace and she was probably about eight
years old, I want to say, and she had never
been to a corporate office before, and I wasn't expecting
her to be surprised and amazed by the thing. She
(23:27):
was surprised and amazed with. It was little things like
we had a magnetic badge reader that we would have
to use to enter the building, and so I'd swipe
my badge and the door would automatically open, and she says, WHOA,
that's a big deal. So we stood there for five
minutes just swiping the badge so she could get a
feel for that. Then we walked into the building and
it was a very impressive building at that time, and
(23:47):
she's like, whoa, is this where you work? And it
occurred to me she had no idea where I went
when I left home every day, and now she walks
into this big, impressive building. She's like, oh my gosh,
this is incredible. Well this is your workplace? Yes it is.
And then I walked her to my office and she's like, oh,
this is where you sit, mommy, what do you do?
(24:09):
And that's when it occurred to me she had no
idea what my day job actually looked like. So we
talked through that and how did you end up doing that?
And we talked through well, you know, honey, I work
in you know, corporate communications, public relations. It started with
just enjoying writing and storytelling, and that led into a
job in journalism, and that led into PR and that's
(24:30):
how we got here. Oh wow. So then she's asking
all of these other questions. She sees all these cubicles
around my office. Who are these people? What do they do?
And I said, well, honey, they're part of my team.
Oh my gosh. So she's starting to put together. You
know what I'm doing during the day, how it relates
to other people's jobs. She's starting to see herself in that.
She was there spinning around in my chair. You guys
(24:53):
get cool chairs. I mean, it was all the little things.
And I think from therefore she really started seeing herself
and the work place in a way that I don't
think she otherwise would have, because she just didn't have
a mental picture of what the corporate world looked like
and what it looked like with somebody who looked like
her sitting in a chair doing cool things. So to me,
(25:13):
that's what it's all about. And now that take a
child to work day and beyond is with Junior Achievement.
It takes it to the next level. It used to
be a fairly informal thing. Parents would bring their children
in and then do their best to show them around
that day and then take them to go get lunch
and call it a day. Now there's a whole program
(25:34):
around that with expertise from Junior Achievement how to make
that a really enriching and fulfilling day. Parents don't have
to improvise so much to make that meaningful. It staples,
for example, we've got volunteers who are gonna on a
rotation take those students around and show them different aspects
of the business, different aspects of the building. Yes there
will be lunch, Yes there will be pizza, and then
(25:55):
we'd spend some quality time talking about how they can
apply what they've learned in the future. So the whole
program has just become so much more meaningful and memorable.
I can't wait to get my kids back in. They're
now high school students, and so it's becoming much more real.
But that early exposure, I'll never forget my daughter sitting there, Mommy,
what do you do? That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, I agree with that so much. You're bringing memories
back for me. I don't know that we even thought
about the fact that you could take your kid to work.
And maybe my dad did and they just didn't say it.
But my dad worked for the Bell Systems and I
grew up in Georgia, and so he would take me
that week between Christmas and New Year's when it was
(26:37):
pretty much dead and they didn't have any work to do.
He would take me and my sister, and he was
on the thirty second floor, and I remember that elevator
was the coolest thing because you could jump right at
the right moment and hover a little longer, you know exactly.
And I was the same way. I had not given
any thought to what his day looked like, and I
just knew he left earlier than I got up in
(26:59):
the morning, and it was home home by dinner time, you.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Know, absolutely, And if the only thing children otherwise see
is what they see on the internet or what they
see on TV, they may have absolutely no idea what
it looks like. We recently hosted at Staples at ja
job shadow of a different program hosted by Junior Achievement,
where we brought in high school students just on a
random day to come in and have the same type
(27:21):
of experience what we offered on take a Child to
Work Day and beyond eye opening, we had a group
of students who had literally never been in a corporate
office before and they had a chance to come in
see it firsthand. They had been working on a case
study for us, you know, giving us a feel from
a young person's point of view, how could we improve
the user experience on our Staples dot com website, and
(27:45):
they had a chance to stand in the auditorium, give
a presentation to our corporate executives, the CFO, the chief
Digital officer, the marketing staff, and talk about what they learned,
what they'd recommend, how people take questions. Those are priceless
experiences and opportunities. You can talk about that type of
experience in school, but until you've actually experienced it, put
(28:08):
yourself in that position, visualized yourself, it's not real. And
we had some young people at the end of that
day having been in the workplace completely having changed their
minds about what they wanted to do in the future.
Some of them had only seen their parents working in
you know, local retail type jobs, and they said, you
know what, I might actually want to be a CFO.
(28:29):
That sounds like a good thing. I like numbers, I
like finance. Seems like your CFO has a good job there.
I might want to do that when I grow up.
I might want to be a lawyer. So those type
of experiences, again, you can't get that in a classroom
very easily. This is what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, I love that, And so I assume if you're
if someone's listening in there with a school and they
want to do something like that again, you have all
those resources on your website right Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Junior Achievement ja dot org is priceless, great opportunity for
any school to connect with Junior Achievement or any business.
They are literally everywhere you want to be. So whether
it's JAUSA or the local affiliate, those Junior Achievement contacts
can help to connect any interested school or business with
the mission of the organization, their various activities and get
(29:17):
those schools and students involved, and we highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I love that. I think we've come to the end
of our time, so I apologize about that, but I
do want to thank you for being able to come
on and talk to us about this and sharing so
much information. I feel like we've learned a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me, Rebecca.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with a Virginia news network,
and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. Every year, thousands of kids across the US
will visit workplaces to gain first hand knowledge of what
it's like to have a job and work with others.
Junior Achievement, which leads Take a Child to Work Day
and Beyond, has expanded the program to give kids who
cannot visit a parent's workplace for one reason or another
(00:27):
flexibility to experience a visit at other times throughout the year.
On this episode, we're talking to Gina Gibbs Foster, the
vice president of Corporate Communications at Staples, to learn more
about their program. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad
you could be here with us today to talk about this.
I love this subject, taking your kid to work. I
think we need to be doing more of that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I completely agree. It's all about.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Exposure, yes, exactly. So why don't we start by telling
the audience a little bit about what qualifies you to
talk about them today?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah. Well, I'm here today representing Staples, which is one
of the leading experts in the world of work. We
work quite regularly with a wide range of businesses across
the country as well as schools, educator students, and so
we are really excited to partner with an organization like
Junior Achievement, which is really focused on giving young people
(01:23):
the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success,
plan for the future, make smart academic and economic choices,
and that all ties into them understanding the world of work.
So we're happy to apply our expertise in our presence
in many communities across the country to help Junior Achievement
to fulfill its mission, which we feel is a very
(01:45):
important one. I'm also very pleased and proud to serve
on the board of Junior Achievement of Greater Boston, close
to where we're headquartered. So I'm doubly interested and excited
about this topic and really think it's a key part
of the future for this country.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, most definitely, And I know we kind of by
the time we were able to get this show in
the air, we've missed Take your Child to Work Day,
which I believe was April twenty fourth, But I still
think it's important and I think that you know, more
people need to be doing it. Do you know the
history of take your Child to Work Day?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Absolutely? So take your Child to Work Day. It actually
began back in the nineteen nineties is take your Daughter
to Work Day, and that was a really important initiative
at the time, focused on giving young ladies exposure to
the world of work and different career opportunities that were
out there. Since then, the program has really evolved and
(02:43):
now Take a Child to Work Day and Beyond has
evolved to include all children, even those who might not
have a parent who can take them to work on
the specific day. And what will happen going forward with
Junior Achievements involvement is young people from across the country
will be going into workplaces, whether it was this past
Take a Child to Work Day or in the future,
(03:05):
and they will be shadowing parents, guardians, even volunteer professionals.
We had a good number of Staples associates who volunteer
to let children shadow them at work at our Staples headquarters,
for example, and all of that is being brought to
bear now by Junior Achievement. So Junior Achievement began leading
the initiative this year. Staples was very proud to be
(03:27):
the presenting sponsor this year and we're excited about where
it's going and what's nice is that it's now Take
a Child to Work Day and Beyond, which takes the
emphasis beyond the day itself to year round opportunities for
young people to really get a good hands on look
at the world of work. So, whether you were able
to participate on April twenty fourth or not, there are
(03:48):
so many ways to get involved in so many resources.
And there's a lot actually that can be found on
the website, which can be found by searching take a
Child to Work in Junior Achievement. It's really a year
round opportunity. Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
And would you say this is mainly something that's done
in large corporations or is it for everybody?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's for everybody, businesses of all types. What's interesting is
that whether you're talking a large corporation, a small business,
it could even be a radio station, Take a Child
to Work and Beyond is about giving young people an
up close look at what work looks like in all
of its different forms. Kids these days tend to gravitate
toward the jobs that they see or that they're exposed to.
(04:30):
So it used to be back when there were a
lot of those criminal shows on TV, people wanted to
go into criminal investigations, or they wanted to do CSI
types of jobs. These days, a lot of young people,
including my own kids, have expressed an interest in being
social media influencers. That's great for those kids that pans
out for but for many children that's not really their future.
(04:53):
So by going into a workplace, young people can really
see the wide range of jobs that are out there
and connect those with their interests and their talents. For example,
if a young person really is interested in the world
of social media and they think they have a passion
for how to use that medium in order to reach
audiences and influence them, rather than going down the path
(05:15):
of trying to be the next great social media influencer,
have they considered a job like a job in digital
marketing or marketing itself. Have they considered maybe the technical
side of that information technology is huge cybersecurity. So it's
all about expanding the jobs that they see so that
they can see what as out there that might be
(05:35):
a very realistic and viable opportunity for them that they
may never have thought of. And what's beautiful is that
for the parents and the adults and the volunteers who
get to show off their work on take a child
to work day or beyond. They get to reconnect with
what made them excited about their jobs and their career paths.
And it really is just this whole rekindling of excitement
(05:57):
around the types of jobs that are out there today
that are viable, they're a lucrative, and that are really
conducive to economic success in this world.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I love that, and I really have not given this
any thought until you said it. I've worked in television
and radio stations, and I do remember taking my kids
to work because I was When I worked in TV,
I did a Halloween costume of the like popular costumes
this Year segment and I used my kids as models
(06:26):
along with some other people's kids, and so they got
to experience that. And then in radio, you know, the
first day of work at a new job in a
new town, and I had not been able to line
up childcare yet, and I thought about it and I
was like, Okay, I can either call in and say
I don't have my you know, childcare lined up, or
I can just show up with my kids and see
what happens. Because they were at that point used to
(06:47):
being in studios and things, and I took them and
it turned out to be a great joke between me
and my former boss because he was like, is it
like take your kid to work day or something. I
was like, well, it could be, you know, like right,
but yeah, and I had thought about it. But my
youngest is very interested in maybe not news and that
(07:10):
type of thing, but entertainment. And I wonder how much
that has to do with him being on a set
and you know, recording a commercial or whatever, you know,
for radio that I hadn't thought about that. Is there
any industry that you can't do this?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Is there any history that you can't do this, any.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Any industry that you know, maybe you wouldn't want to
take your kid to work?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Boy. I think it's so important for children to have
exposure to different types of workplaces, regardless of where they are.
I've worked in a number of different industries. They all
have different facets of them that can be fascinating and
in some cases, if somebody is working in an industry
where you just want to be mindful of having children
in that workplace. For example, if you're working at a
(07:54):
manufacturing location, or you're working at some place where they're
producing products that might have some special safety requirements around
that you probably want to make sure that you've cleared
it with your workplace before you bring your children in.
So we do recommend that if parents are guardians or
adults are interested in bringing in young people to their workplace,
(08:16):
that they check in with their employer first to make
sure that they're participating and take a child to work
day and beyond, and or that they've cleared opportunities to
bring their children in outside of that. If companies are participating,
most employers have already designated someone to coordinate children's visits
if they're doing it on a designated day. They may
have already identified a specific part of the workplace that
(08:38):
would be great for children to come in and see,
or they might have lined up volunteers to come talk
about their work in a specific part of that workplace.
And there are lots of ways that companies can modify
and adapt their workplace to make them child friendly. For example,
when we have children come to visit us at our
Staples headquarters, we know that not every child wants to
(08:58):
necessarily sit and want somebody in their office working on spreadsheets,
but they could be very interested in seeing how we
design and put together our products. They could be very
interested in going in to see the cybersecurity room, where
we have people looking for those bad actors online who
might be out there trying to do bad things on
the internet. They may be very interested in going to
(09:20):
visit our marketing group where you have some really cool
hip people doing really cool hip things and coming up
with new promotions and slogans and campaigns that are very interesting.
So finding those kid friendly opportunities in any workplace is huge,
but it does help to check with the employer just
to make sure that they're always looking out for the
children's safety and as well who's going to be there
(09:42):
to look after them while they're on site so there
are no surprises. But any any company should be able
to participate.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Would you
say that you know there's maybe an age limit for kids,
because obviously the older kids who are inching towards you know,
their careers themselve that's going to make a lot of sense.
But the younger kids, you know, is there an age
where you would recommend no younger than fill in the blank.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, so I know that Junior Achievement focuses a lot
on children from ages kindergarten through twelve primarily, and obviously
when you get to middle school high school, you're starting
to think much more seriously about potential future career paths
or what do I really want to be when I
grow up. So there's a lot of merit to that
hands on workplace experience in that middle school to high
(10:33):
school range in particular, but to the point of giving
children an eye opening view of where do our parents
or guardians go during the day, What does that workplace
even look like? Are there people who look like me
in that workplace? Could I see myself there? Back and
start at a very early age, I remember going in
with my parents to work when I was very small
(10:55):
and coming away with a very clear impression of, Hey,
this is what a workplace even looks like. This is
what a corporate office looks like. These are the different
types of people that you see there, this is how
they dress, and those types of exposure opportunities are very
valuable and can certainly be made very age appropriate, even
if in a workplace they're bringing in younger children. We've
(11:18):
had similar programs in our corporate headquarters at Staples where
we brought in very young children, and there's a healthy
dose of here's what we do, but made age appropriate,
followed by balloon animals and fun and hanging out with
our young people at work and just seeing some of
the cooler things they do that are very appropriate and
interesting for young people. So definitely in that eighth grade
(11:38):
through high school range, it's more of a serious career
discussion for them potentially, But any of the workplace experiences
can be scaled and back to the point of take
a Child to Work day and beyond throughout the year,
whether it's on a particular day or not. Junior Achievement
has a lot of resources that can help to bring
(11:58):
the workplace to life for young people, and all of
that can be found on either the Junior Achievement website,
which is JA dot org, or you can look specifically
at the Junior Achievement Take a Child to Work Day
website which can be found by searching take a Child
to Work and Junior Achievement. Tons of resources for parents,
for businesses and other interested volunteers.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Okay, I love that. Would you say that taking your
child to work can have a positive effect on helping
them understand why they have to learn what they learn
in school.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Absolutely, and that's one of the key benefits. A lot
of times in school, children have a challenging time connecting
what they're learning in school with what they are potentially
going to be asked to do in the future in
their workplace. They may not realize, for example, that if
they do want to be in the social media space,
Let's say you want to be in a job that
(12:51):
involves digital marketing, well you need to understand the math
the numbers behind that business role, and so the maths
skills that they're learning are very import into that statistics,
a lot of those things. So a nice thing about
junior Achievement is that throughout the year they're reinforcing the
connection between what children are learning in school with hands
on practical applications for that in the workplace, and by
(13:15):
coming into a workplace for take a child to work day,
it really helps to bring it home because now the
students can have conversations, whether it's with their parent or
guardian or an employee volunteer, what types of skills do
you use on a day to day basis in this job.
If I see somebody in the workplace and they're doing
something that to me looks really cool as a child,
(13:37):
I could ask what kind of things made you want
to explore this career path. What are the skills that
you use every day? What did you study in school?
Would you do that again? And those kinds of conversations
can light a spark and a young person that will
ten times more than any conversation with their parent or
their teacher, influence that child's thinking about what they need
(13:58):
to focus on if they want to do that type
of work when they grow up.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I like that, So let's talk about the nitty griddy
of this concept. You know a lot of people may
not choose to do this simply because it's not an
excused absence, and I know that's a big deal when
it comes to you know, school aged children in public school.
Would you recommend that it's worth that absence or do
(14:24):
you recommend they go on a day where they already
are going to be early release or teacher work day?
What's your recommendation there?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
A lot really depends on the student, the parent, and
the situation. So really what's great about take a child
to work day and beyond is unlike in the past,
it's not dependent on any one day. So if someone
has a student who's interested in coming into the workplace,
but that particular day they've got a major exam. It
(14:55):
is junior or senior year of high school. If they
don't pass that exam, that's going to have some real
consequences for their GPA and their college prospects. That may
not be their day to come into the workplace. They
might be sick that day, the parent who would host
them might have other important meetings and it's okay. So
if someone is interested in participating, whether it's on April
(15:15):
twenty fourth or beyond, we really encourage them to connect
with their local Junior Achievement office to learn more about
ways that they can participate and bring those same experiences
to their children. Or they can visit the JAA website,
which again gives lots of other opportunities to find ways
to bring that same experience to the child, whether it's
(15:36):
bringing the child to the workplace or in some cases
the parent might want to go to them. And Junior
Achievement does offer opportunities for parents, guardians, volunteers to volunteer
in classrooms, mentor children even talk about the type of
work they do at a school, and those are other
ways to participate beyond the day itself. So I would
(15:57):
encourage anyone who is interested in learning more and participate,
even if they can't participate on the actual Take a
Child to Work Day to learn more by visiting JA
dot org or again, get some additional resources on the
take a Child to Work Day and beyond experience by
searching for take a Child to Work in Junior Achievement,
and there are some additional ideas there for how to
(16:18):
bring that experience to life for young people, whether they
can be there for the actual day or they need
to come beyond that day.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Okay, I like that. I assume that on this website,
you know there's tips and tricks for how to talk
to your boss about it. Does that also include tips
and tricks and suggestions on if you wanted to make
it a day for all employees to come and maybe
you didn't mind being the organizer? Is that included?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Absolutely? So. If a business is interested in hosting a
Take a Child to Work Day, there are resources on
the website for businesses and they can look in there
and figure out how to connect with Junior Achievement how
to host the day. We had considered at Staples whether
we wanted to have the day on April twenty fourth itself.
We decided to do that because that worked out very
(17:08):
well for our purposes, But you could easily replicate the
same experience on another day, doing the same types of
things using the same resources that are available through junior achievement.
In our case, for example, we're hosting a take a
Child to Work Day event on the actual day, or
we've hosted on the actual day during what is the
(17:29):
Massachusetts spring break week from many of our public schools.
Perfect timing because so many of our children are already
going to be out of school for break parents maybe
looking for things to do with them, especially those high
school aged kids who may not be able to get
work hours for one week, but certainly don't want to
be sitting in camps with the quote babies during that time.
(17:51):
So perfect timing for us to host a few dozen
high school students to come in and get a good
feel for the world to work with us. But that
business recur on the Take a Child to Work Day
website is priceless because it really makes it turn key
for businesses to figure out how can they host a
similar type of event on any given day and make
(18:12):
it meaningful a good experience for the students, a good
experience for the volunteers, and a good experience for the
business as well.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Okay, so we've talked about the benefits for the kids,
would you say there's a benefit also for the parents.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Absolutely. So parents sometimes run into an issue where I'll
speak for myself and I'm sure others can relate. Children
don't always consider their parents to be the ultimate authority
on things. I know officially, with my kids, I don't
know anything until they've heard it validated by a friend,
right somebody else in their world, or they've seen it
on social media. So sometimes having a third party that
(18:49):
can reinforce key points, like you know, it's really important
for you to focus on your poor education and math. Yes,
that English class matter is because if you want to
be in this field, you're going to need those skills. Yes,
it is important for you to develop your public speaking skills. Yes,
it's important for you to aim for this type of
GPA if you want to go to that type of college.
(19:11):
Having that reinforced by somebody who's doing something that that
child thinks they may want to do is priceless. Anytime
I have an opportunity for my children to speak to
one of my colleagues at work, or to see you know,
me in action. It just speaks volumes in ways that
it's really hard for a teacher or a parent to
(19:33):
get across to a young person. It's easy for a
young person to dismiss the authority figures in the like lives,
like their teachers or their parents, and they may think
might just not get it. But when you see someone
who looks young, hip and cool, who's echoing those same messages,
it just really brings it home. So I would say
the biggest benefit at all of all for the parents
is it's not just your voice, it's other people's voices
(19:56):
reinforcing those same things, making smart academic and e choices matters.
You've heard it now from your parents or guardians. You've
heard it from your teachers, you've heard it from the
junior achievement staff that you've interacted with, and now you're
hearing it from others. It all adds up.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I love that too, that's so true. And I also
wonder is there a benefit like let's say you know
you have multiple children, maybe you take one child each
year and you get that one on one bonding, And
I would imagine that that also benefits the employer, just
because we all want a better work life balance. Wouldn't
(20:32):
you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Absolutely. What we've find is anytime we have our employees volunteering,
particularly with junior achievement, and they get a chance to
show off their workplace and they get to show off
what we do and why they're so proud of it,
they are extra bonded to their company for having given
them the experience and the opportunity to do that, to
(20:54):
show off their workplace to their children or to other children,
to talk about excitedly the type of work they're doing.
That has huge benefits from an employee engagement perspective, and
every employer wants that. And to your point, what's nice
about the take a child to work day and beyond approaches?
Parents and guardians no longer have to choose. When it
(21:16):
was take your daughter to work day and I have
one of each, I have a son and a daughter.
I would feel bad leaving my son at home because
he's very interested in the world of work too. Now
I don't have to choose. I can bring either or
or both. And because it's not necessarily tied to any
one day, we can have either or child come at
any given time, and we don't have to juggle their
(21:38):
schedules or my schedule to make that happen. So this
is a really very inclusive approach that enables any and
all children to participate, make it work with the parents'
schedules and the way they want to work, and at
the same time give employer as an opportunity to really
have those employees feel even more loyal to, engaged with,
(21:58):
and inspired by their company for having given them the
opportunity to share it that way.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I like that. So let me ask you this, is
there any downside to this? And if there is, which
I doubt there is, But if there is, how do
we deal with that?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, the only downside I can think of is that
kids dream even bigger. And I know I've had my
children and to come visit my workplace in the past
and they're ready to put their feet up on the
desk and get the things going. So I think we
have to also manage their expectations around you know, the
hard work and the do's earning that comes with entering
the world of work. And that's where our organizations like
(22:33):
Junior Achievement help to provide a good reality check as well,
but there really is never a downside to exposing young
people to the real life world of work, to the
economic choices they're going to need to make today and
in the future, and then preparing them to be able
to make smart choices. That's a win for them, it's
a win for their parents and guardians, it's a win
(22:55):
for businesses, and it's a win for the country.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah. I agree with that. And it sounds like you've
been through a few of these. Is there one that
sticks out with a particularly fond memory?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
There is so so a while ago with this particular
take a child to work concept. I remember bringing my
daughter into my workplace and she was probably about eight
years old, I want to say, and she had never
been to a corporate office before, and I wasn't expecting
her to be surprised and amazed by the thing. She
(23:27):
was surprised and amazed with. It was little things like
we had a magnetic badge reader that we would have
to use to enter the building, and so I'd swipe
my badge and the door would automatically open, and she says, WHOA,
that's a big deal. So we stood there for five
minutes just swiping the badge so she could get a
feel for that. Then we walked into the building and
it was a very impressive building at that time, and
(23:47):
she's like, whoa, is this where you work? And it
occurred to me she had no idea where I went
when I left home every day, and now she walks
into this big, impressive building. She's like, oh my gosh,
this is incredible. Well this is your workplace? Yes it is.
And then I walked her to my office and she's like, oh,
this is where you sit, mommy, what do you do?
(24:09):
And that's when it occurred to me she had no
idea what my day job actually looked like. So we
talked through that and how did you end up doing that?
And we talked through well, you know, honey, I work
in you know, corporate communications, public relations. It started with
just enjoying writing and storytelling, and that led into a
job in journalism, and that led into PR and that's
(24:30):
how we got here. Oh wow. So then she's asking
all of these other questions. She sees all these cubicles
around my office. Who are these people? What do they do?
And I said, well, honey, they're part of my team.
Oh my gosh. So she's starting to put together. You
know what I'm doing during the day, how it relates
to other people's jobs. She's starting to see herself in that.
She was there spinning around in my chair. You guys
(24:53):
get cool chairs. I mean, it was all the little things.
And I think from therefore she really started seeing herself
and the work place in a way that I don't
think she otherwise would have, because she just didn't have
a mental picture of what the corporate world looked like
and what it looked like with somebody who looked like
her sitting in a chair doing cool things. So to me,
(25:13):
that's what it's all about. And now that take a
child to work day and beyond is with Junior Achievement.
It takes it to the next level. It used to
be a fairly informal thing. Parents would bring their children
in and then do their best to show them around
that day and then take them to go get lunch
and call it a day. Now there's a whole program
(25:34):
around that with expertise from Junior Achievement how to make
that a really enriching and fulfilling day. Parents don't have
to improvise so much to make that meaningful. It staples,
for example, we've got volunteers who are gonna on a
rotation take those students around and show them different aspects
of the business, different aspects of the building. Yes there
will be lunch, Yes there will be pizza, and then
(25:55):
we'd spend some quality time talking about how they can
apply what they've learned in the future. So the whole
program has just become so much more meaningful and memorable.
I can't wait to get my kids back in. They're
now high school students, and so it's becoming much more real.
But that early exposure, I'll never forget my daughter sitting there, Mommy,
what do you do? That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, I agree with that so much. You're bringing memories
back for me. I don't know that we even thought
about the fact that you could take your kid to work.
And maybe my dad did and they just didn't say it.
But my dad worked for the Bell Systems and I
grew up in Georgia, and so he would take me
that week between Christmas and New Year's when it was
(26:37):
pretty much dead and they didn't have any work to do.
He would take me and my sister, and he was
on the thirty second floor, and I remember that elevator
was the coolest thing because you could jump right at
the right moment and hover a little longer, you know exactly.
And I was the same way. I had not given
any thought to what his day looked like, and I
just knew he left earlier than I got up in
(26:59):
the morning, and it was home home by dinner time, you.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Know, absolutely, And if the only thing children otherwise see
is what they see on the internet or what they
see on TV, they may have absolutely no idea what
it looks like. We recently hosted at Staples at ja
job shadow of a different program hosted by Junior Achievement,
where we brought in high school students just on a
random day to come in and have the same type
(27:21):
of experience what we offered on take a Child to
Work Day and beyond eye opening, we had a group
of students who had literally never been in a corporate
office before and they had a chance to come in
see it firsthand. They had been working on a case
study for us, you know, giving us a feel from
a young person's point of view, how could we improve
the user experience on our Staples dot com website, and
(27:45):
they had a chance to stand in the auditorium, give
a presentation to our corporate executives, the CFO, the chief
Digital officer, the marketing staff, and talk about what they learned,
what they'd recommend, how people take questions. Those are priceless
experiences and opportunities. You can talk about that type of
experience in school, but until you've actually experienced it, put
(28:08):
yourself in that position, visualized yourself, it's not real. And
we had some young people at the end of that
day having been in the workplace completely having changed their
minds about what they wanted to do in the future.
Some of them had only seen their parents working in
you know, local retail type jobs, and they said, you
know what, I might actually want to be a CFO.
(28:29):
That sounds like a good thing. I like numbers, I
like finance. Seems like your CFO has a good job there.
I might want to do that when I grow up.
I might want to be a lawyer. So those type
of experiences, again, you can't get that in a classroom
very easily. This is what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, I love that, And so I assume if you're
if someone's listening in there with a school and they
want to do something like that again, you have all
those resources on your website right Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Junior Achievement ja dot org is priceless, great opportunity for
any school to connect with Junior Achievement or any business.
They are literally everywhere you want to be. So whether
it's JAUSA or the local affiliate, those Junior Achievement contacts
can help to connect any interested school or business with
the mission of the organization, their various activities and get
(29:17):
those schools and students involved, and we highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I love that. I think we've come to the end
of our time, so I apologize about that, but I
do want to thank you for being able to come
on and talk to us about this and sharing so
much information. I feel like we've learned a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me, Rebecca.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with a Virginia news network,
and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus
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