Walt Disney World College Program

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The Walt Disney World College Program is a U.S. national internship program operated by The Walt Disney Company, stationed at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA. The Walt Disney World College Program recruits students (18 years and older) and all majors for a semester-long paid internship program working at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Walt Disney World College Recruiting actively schedules program presentations at most major universities and community colleges across the United States and its territories. The philosophy behind the program is further divided into three main concentrations: living, learning and earning.

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[edit] History

The first Walt Disney World College Program began in 1981. In the early days, the College Program consisted of just over 200 students from 30 schools working in only one theme park, the Magic Kingdom. At that time it was known as "The Magic Kingdom College Program". From this time until 1988, all program participants stayed in an off-property mobile home park in Kissimmee, Florida. In 1986, program participants could work at Epcot as well as the Magic Kingdom. 1988 saw the opening of Vista Way apartments, which were much closer to the participant's employment. Following the resort's massive growth in the 1990's and the widespread popularity of the internet, the College Program has grown substantially, seeing two new participant housing complexes built and many more colleges represented. To this date, many thousands of students have participated and hundreds of schools have been represented.

In the Fall of 2004, student opportunities at Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering were combined with the opportunities available at Walt Disney World and the program was renamed to the Disney Theme Parks and Resorts College Program. The opportunities with Disneyland and Imagineering are quite different from the opportunities available at Walt Disney World. Walt Disney World's program remains the largest and most popular program.

Currently, Walt Disney World College Program students work in many diverse “Disney Roles” throughout all four theme parks, more than 20 resorts, two water parks and the various dining/entertainment/retail/sports complexes on the property.

[edit] Program information

Students who apply to the program are given the option of one of several program seasons throughout the year, each usually lasting between five and seven months, though the culinary session length is dependent upon the student's school schedule.

To be considered for the program, each student must attend an information session about the program or view the same session online. Afterwards, students can get an interview either in person or over the telephone. Here the students inform recruiters of the position in which they would like to work while attending the program. Some of these positions (or roles) are food and beverage, operations, custodial, hospitality, and character work. If a student chooses to do character work, they are given a date and location at which to attend an audition. Beginning in 2005, Disney offered an online presentation to better accommodate students' schedules for the live information sessions. [1]

If the student has been accepted, they will receive an acceptance letter within two weeks of the interview, which must be replied to in order to secure a spot in the program. Once the student has accepted the position, they can stay in one of three, company sponsored housing units near Walt Disney World Resort during the duration of the program: Vista Way, Chatham Square, and The Commons (Mainly houses international students.). A new housing complex called Patterson Court is scheduled to open in May 2008.

Some benefits of the program are free park admission, discounted merchandise, and connections with people on the Disney staff who can help further a future career at Disney if the student chooses to return at a later date.

[edit] Criticism

  • Critics argue that Disney is using the program as a source of cheap labor, as interns do the same work as veteran employees, but at a substantially lower pay rate. [2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Disney College Program E-Presentation". 
  2. ^ Disney internships draw students, criticism - U.S. business - MSNBC.com

[edit] External links

[edit] News articles