{"id":32349,"date":"2014-02-04T05:22:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T10:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=32349"},"modified":"2022-05-05T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T17:36:08","slug":"disney-college-program-favorite-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/disney-college-program-favorite-things\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disney College Program-My Favorite Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

My senior year in college, I decided to attend a Disney College Program informative session. It was on a whim and I convinced a friend to attend with me. My plans were to attend graduate school so I had the summer and well, why not work for the Mouse. I can still see the auditorium room we met in and the gentlemen who spoke. It sounded great and I signed up. I received my acceptance letter but no specifics, just a date. This was perfect.<\/p>\n

\"Disney<\/a><\/p>\n

Zoom ahead into May\u2026.When I arrived, I was assigned to Vista Way and as a hostess at Hollywood & Vine. You could have told me that I won an Emmy or hit the lottery and I could not have been any happier. I loved every minute of working at Hollywood & Vine. Well, most of it. Cleaning the ice cream machine did not make the top 10 list.<\/p>\n

My top ten favorite things list, in no particular order.<\/p>\n

First, back then, the Minnie Mouse was one of the characters and would dance when a certain song came on. I loved when that song came on the employees stopped and gathered to dance. Small children would often run up and join in. This was magical to see their joy.<\/p>\n

\"Hollywood<\/a><\/p>\n

Second, when a child sees Minnie Mouse for the first time is a sight you will not soon forget.<\/p>\n

Third, it was wonderful to help families, with children celebrating a special occasion or crying, by passing out stickers or special treats. Yes, crying does happen at Disney. To be a part of their Disney magic was an amazing feeling.<\/p>\n

\"Hollywood<\/a><\/p>\n

Fourth, the people that I worked with were wonderful and took us under their wings, as there was one other College Program student at Hollywood & Vine.<\/p>\n

Fifth, my manager also helped me explore a variety of roles at Disney. I shadowed him, another manager at Mama Melrose, someone at the front desk at the Wilderness Lodge, the Disney Youth Education Series, and a character for a day.<\/p>\n

Sixth, I rode the Rock \u2018n Roller Coaster before it was open to the public, numerous times. After the park closed, they would allow the employees a chance to ride. We could not run down Sunset Boulevard fast enough. When Aerosmith arrived for parade and ceremony, I even snuck in the back to see them arrive.<\/p>\n

Seventh, a very important perk was that we received free admission into the parks. Yes, you read it correctly, free. Most days, if I was not working, I found someone on my floor to visit a park. We would jump on the employee bus and head over.<\/p>\n

Eighth, the five other college students that I live with had other positions, at other parks, so it was always fun to visit them at work or here their experiences. My friend and I were in the same apartment and shared a room, this made it even better.<\/p>\n

Ninth, my parents and sister came to visit in late June. This was great for them to share this time with me. They received a discounted room based on my employee status.<\/p>\n

\"Hollywood<\/a><\/p>\n

Last, I worked for Disney World! What more can I say?<\/p>\n

Sure not everything was perfect. The costume, well, the costume may have left a little to be desired, it ranks close to the ice cream machine. I did get to drop it off to be cleaned. This was a great perk for a college student, especially one that did not want to do laundry. Sometimes I wished I had a car but the bus was relatively easy. The biggest plus was after a long shift, I did not have to think about driving. Ok, and, I did not make much money but I had a magical time.<\/p>\n

For me, working for Disney was the ultimate experience in my love of Disney. It was an experience that not everyone has. On interviews, this would always be a topic of conversation. It is still, 14 years later, a great conversation piece. Would I do it again? Yes. When I left the College Program, I thought about returning for the holiday season but it never worked out. To this day, I occasionally peruse the Disney careers page and see if anything is available in education. So far, it has not worked out, maybe when I retire. I just add it to my list of Disney must do\u2019s. Have you worked for Disney or dream of working for Disney? What is your dream position?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My senior year in college, I decided to attend a Disney College Program informative session. It was on a whim and I convinced a friend to attend with me. My plans were to attend graduate school so I had the summer and well, why not work for the Mouse. I can still see the auditorium…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":32353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walt-disney-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86384,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349\/revisions\/86384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}