Little Drexel Dragons Inspired to Dream at Annual Event

Drexel University’s annual “Inspire a Child to Dream” day, modeled after the National Take Our Daughters/Sons to Work Day, certainly lived up to its title on April 27. If you were on campus that day, you might have seen groups of young children — all matching in navy t-shirts with “Ambition Can’t Wait” printed on the back in gold letters — doing everything from getting their fingerprints taken by Public Safety to sitting in on a session in the MAD Dragon Studios to fearlessly scaling the Recreation Center’s 28-foot-tall rock climbing wall.

These 146 little Drexel Dragons, aged 6­–12 years old, were the children and relatives of Drexel University faculty and professional staff members, including the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and Drexel University Online. Instead of going to school that Wednesday, the children spent a half-day at the University attending educational and hands-on activities organized by different Drexel colleges, schools and departments.

The 2017 program was divided into sessions lasting approximately 45 minutes each, which were attended by groups of children and included activities teaching about health and wellness (rock climbing and games in the Drexel Recreation Center; learning about healthy eating in the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management’s kitchens) and professional occupations (learning how to be — and pretend to be! — a lawyer at the Kline School of Law; trying their hand at being a game designer with the Dragons involved in Drexel’s Department of Digital Media and Computer Science).

For lunch, the children reconvened in Behrakis Hall (where they had enjoyed breakfast earlier) to watch and even take part in an interactive dance performance from Drexel’s Youth Performance Exchange Touring Ensemble composed of dance majors in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.

Here’s a photo recap of all of the fun that the baby Dragons had at “Inspire a Child to Dream” day while you were attending department meetings, sending emails or teaching classes.