The Inside Scoop

Okay, so for those of you who don't know exactly what it is that I will be doing, here's the dirt. Every semester while you're in college, you have the chance to apply for this Disney Internship. The main rule is that you have to be enrolled in at least one college course during the time when you apply, which means the internship doesn't actually have to be completed while you're in college. Like me, I graduated in May, but will be participating in the program starting in August.

Overall, it's a pretty straight forward thing. You go down for a set period of time. For the fall, there are two programs. There is the normal Fall Program which is August-January (which is what I'm doing). Then, there is the Fall Advantage Program which is May-January. I wish I had been able to do the Fall Advantage Program, but during the time that I applied, the dates were not clear. I didn't want to risk missing my graduation and/or having very very little time to move home from college and then move to Florida right away. So, I opted for the normal Fall Program. Later, I found out that I could have tried switching by contacting Disney. But, by the time I found this out, I had already found my roommate and didn't want to change my date. So, Fall Program it is.

The main focus of the program is that a college student gets to work for a very prestigious company. They get to network with lots and lots of people. They get work experience, possibly in their field. They also have the chance to take classes (for credit). Not to mention meeting a whole bunch of amazing people.

So I'll be headed down in August to start my internship. When I tell people that I'm going to Disney, people's first reaction is "For vacation?!" And I tell them "No, I'm going to work." Then their second question is "So are you going to be performing or will you be a character?!?" Okay so here's the deal. No, I won't be performing or be a character. As fun as that all sounds, I don't like auditioning, and performing is not my main focus. This internship is random work. But it's a great way to get my foot in the door.

After the initial 5 months, my plan is to stay in Disney as long as possible. I have several options to do this. My first option is to extend my internship. From what I understand, I can extend it up to just under a year long. That is one way to stay, although I would like to start working up a little. My second choice is to apply for a Professional Internship. These are a little more prestigious than the normal College Internships. For this, I would look into their Education Professional Internships to get my back into the field of education. If this doesn't pan out, then I also have the option of applying for a full- or part-time job. My overall goal though is to get up and into the Youth Education Series that Disney has, or something like it. I would absolutely love to work with children and teenagers visiting Disney. And although I wouldn't necessarily be using my music degree, I would still be using my education degree to some extent.

So never you fear, I do have a plan. I love talking about Disney, but when I tell people I won't be using my degree, they all get this very confused or judgmental look on their faces. That's the part I don't like. But no matter, in a couple months, I'll be working for Disney and having the time of my life.

Disney splits the internship into three main parts: Living, Earning, and Learning. Due to the length of this entry, I will post more specifics about each of these in later posts!