Anyone do Disney College Internship?

[cheerdancer11]

I am very interested in participating in this program! If any one did this can you tell me what types of things you did and how competitive this program is? I'm hoping to do this maybe my sophmore or junior year. thanks!

Michele

[SyracuseWolvrine]

I did the College Program last semester ... It was a lot of fun, but it's really a different type of internship. It's an "internship" in that you can get college credit for it, you're only working for a set amount of time, and it's all college students. As far as what you actually do, you'll be working at all the parks and resorts that make up Walt Disney World. My "internship" area was Main Entrance Operations at Disney's Animal Kingdom ... I worked the turnstyles to get into the park. I had friends that were working at some of the resorts, or in some of the shops, or helping to run attractions.

[cheerdancer11]

Did you learn anything about your field in college? Or was it more just like a job at Disney? Did you have ne classes/lectures there? thanks for sharing ur experience!

Michele

[SyracuseWolvrine]

Did you learn anything about your field in college? Or was it more just like a job at Disney? Did you have ne classes/lectures there? thanks for sharing ur experience!

Michele

Well ... I didn't have any classes about Nebraska (NE) ;)

At it's base, it was just a job at Disney. HOWEVER, if you want it to be more than that, you can. You have the option of taking some courses through Disney ... some Universities will even give you credit for them. I chose not to do this, as I had already graduated, and had absolutely no use for any more credits.

There were also a lot of other things you could do to get the most out of your internship. They have a mentoring program, where they will pair you up with a manager from somewhere within WDW, not necessarily in your field, but they'll try. The person who is your mentor may be able to set up other networking opportunities (I graduated with an IT degree, my mentor was an Engineering manager, but he knew someone in the IT department, and arranged a meeting with her for me). There are also a bunch of lectures you could go to. Just to name a few, there was a time management seminar presented by Lee Cockerell (executive VP of WDW), Q/A sessions with park managers, restaurant managers, etc, "Spotlight" presentations that gave some insight and allowed time for Q/A with people that work in some other areas.

Basically, the College Program internship is what you make it out to be. If you want it to be just a job at WDW, it can be, but it can be so much more, and I'd really recommend taking advantage of the program, and the opportunities it presents.

This is a pretty long post ... if you have any specific questions, send em to me by PM, and I'll make sure to answer them.

[cheerdancer11]

Thanks for your help. I definitely want to give it a try now that i know more about it :)