So at this point in my blog, I have been waiting for my acceptance or denial. It was crazy how excited I started to get. It wasn't even the application that made me excited. I think it was the thought of actually having something after graduation. After my interview I became a little crazy about it. I joined a facebook group and started mulling over the posts in anticipation. There was a thread about rejection that really made me paranoid. Scott told me that I'd be fine and that I shouldn't worry. I think I annoyed a lot of people in the waiting period. I interviewed Feb 27th and the days draaaagged. I couldn't remember what address I used for the application and I was about to go on spring break. aaaah! So I waited. I don't think in a single post I can stress how nervous, excited and curious I was. I mean, since the job search hadn't been going well, its all I had.I had to wait the entire spring break to find out if it came. I was really nervous that it would be there. I drove back Sunday, and got to my mailbox. There was something in there and the only thing showing was a emblem of Disney. It arrived.
The Decision had been made
Fumbling, I opened up the mailbox, I ignored the bank statement from my credit card and ripped open the envelope. Inside, was my fate. Was I good enough? Would I be accepted to work for Disney?
I was so nervous I could have peed my pants. Inside was a big purple envelope. The epitome of success, it was my entrance to a world class organization. I got in! I nearly screamed right there in the mailbox area of Collins Hall. I was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to tell my parents, Kristen and Scott the great news! The purple folder, which has Walt Disney World College Program written on the front had a bunch of stock paper with general information on living, learning and earning on it. It also contained a letter, which I will post later.
My Role
The letter had my role as the second sentence after the best word in the English language, Congratulations. I will be working the Main Gate Operations. Basically I will be there to greet the guests, sell tickets, or do the thumb things at the main gate or help park cars, drive the tram and do the microphone for the tram. I'd rather do the first than the second. I will be making 7.21 which isn't great, but oh well as long as I have some money. I don't want to be totally poor! Before I can Accept the opportunity, I had to figure things out.
Unfinished Business
My dear sister reminded me of my loans that I had out there, so I had to figure out if I could defer a loan, and what I would have to do in order to do it. So I began researching and I found several helpful sites, one of which was studenloan.com whom I have a private loan with. First, I needed to figure out who the hell I have loans out with. Since my father did most of it for the first couple years of college; I had no idea. I went to https://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/SaPrivacyConfirmation.do and put in my social, date of birth, first two letters of my last name, and a pin that I had from before. I have about 23,000 in federal loans. The list allows you to look at each one and see who it was from. They were all stanford loans from salie mae, and I went to the salie mae website and found forms for deferment. I called the studentloan.com phone line and got the deferment forms mailed to my house, but was told it was too early to do that still. Basically, as long as you are a half time (between 6 and 11 credits) or full time (12+ credits) student, and enrolled in a college you can defer your loans. yes! So now I have the loan forms but have to wait to defer them. I have to bring the forms to the registrar for them to send out with a status update letter. I hope this is helpful to some others that may need this in the future if anyone else happens to find this.
Acceptance
So after I figured out that I could defer my loans, I went back to wdwcollegeprogram.com and logged into the website with the login that they provide on the letter. I went through tons of screens with the info on living, learning, earning yet again and of course the Disney Look. I had to pick a date to arrive there. It was iether the 20th of May, or the 27th. Since graduation is the 16th there was nooo way I would be able to do the 20th. So the 27th is the one I chose. My program runs from May 27th, 2009 - January 2nd, 2010. Wow such a long time. That means that I will be down there for my mom's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's eve. BUT! I will be down there for gay day, and most importantly; Wine and Food festival! Plus New Years at Disney is kinda cool!
Others like me!
There have been 3 others at Bentley who have also been accepted. I have become kinda a facebook junkie. I check it a few times a day. Yea it's bad. I figured after the first few days it would wear off and it would be business as usual. Not yet. I am still uber excited! On one of the threads, someone is organizing an A capella group like this one. It'd be cool. We're brain storming ideas for names, here are mine:
Wall-E sharps
Spoonfull of A Capella
A capella in Wonderland
Hephalumps and A Capella
Just Keep Singing (thanks to Kristen)
Any other ideas?
More to come later folks! Keep on reading.
Showing posts with label college program. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college program. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wishing Upon a Star
Hello Loved ones!
I decided that this life experienced should somehow be captured, remembered and, of course, shared with all those I care about. I hope that it may also help future students who are curious about the program and have questions. This first post is really long, sorry about that! Lots of information!
Why Did you decide to do the Disney College Program?
Well it was simple. I've always loved Disney and as a marketer I have been fascinated with what they do as a company since I switched majors. They are innovative with their resort in the fact that it is an entire experience, it is unlike 6 Flags or any other theme park I have been ever been to.
My friend Kristen had done the program in Spring 2007, and she is a Disney nut. The experiences, stories and opportunities she had while down there are just tremendous. I kind of wanted to do it after hearing what a time she had down there because there really is no internship like it. It is more than an internship, it's a life experience. I knew I wouldn't have time with my academic schedule to do it, which was a bummer and I hadn't even BEEN to Disney at that point! Scott and I went down in Spring of '08 and I realized how excited I was for the experience and how unique it was, and I was 22 years old at the time. Scott had told me some of his stories being down here, what the housing was like, the classes etc, and after being down there I was really bummed I couldn't go down. We had been talking about moving down and I knew that if we did, the Bentley name wasn't going to get me there alone.
I mulled over the possibilities of right after graduation, this being one of them, and decided I might as well apply. What's the worst that could happen? I could get rejected, or accepted and if I found a job I would just take that.
The Process
So I applied online at www.wdwcollegeprogram.com and asked Kristen about the roles as I went through the checklist (found here) and what each was like. Kristen wanted someone to go with her to the presentation at Northeastern, a short ride with a lot of connections via shuttle and the MBTA, and I agreed since I didn't have class. I watched the presentation which went over the 3 basic concepts of the program, Living Learning and Earning.
Living
It went over where we would live, Disney owns its own apartment complexes down near the property which are fully furnished and rent includes water, electicity, the gym/pool, and "high speed" internet. The cost of rent depends on the number of roommates, more roommates means cheaper rent. Hell yea! I don't really want 7 roommates, so I think I'll go with 5 or 6 if possible. The rent is as low as 80 a week, automaticaly deducted from your check, and as high as like 115. There are 4 apartment complexes with multiple buildings, Vista Way, Chatham, The Commons (international housing), and Patterson Square (brand new!). If you are under 21 you get put in wellness housing, aka no booze for you, but I obviously don't have to worry about that!
Learning
Disney has its own college on campus. How cool is that? It's an accreditated institution and offers courses like:
Sounds like some nifty courses to me! They also have professional development studies, which is more major related...but not marketing ones for me. :( The third type of course is Exploration series which explores more like how Disney works its magic at the parks! I will probably do the marketing one.
Earning
While there you get to earn money, which ranges from 7.21 to 8.50 or so, which is enough to cover costs, but won't leave you with a whole lot. I guess this part is more insignificant for me since I'm not there for the money, I'm there for the experience of it all.
After the presentation and shpeel, the presenter, a very flamboyant cast memeber from the original cast, gives you the phone to schedule a phone interview.
The Interview! AAAH!
The interview was scheduled on Thursday, It was supposed to be at like 11:40 when Kristen and I both could meet. I had to use her phone because it is out of commission with some outstanding bills. Oh well! So we wait and wait and wait, nothing. I ended up calling the hot line and they didn't confirm the number, or even apologize. So much for customer service! We had to reschedule for Friday at 9 pm. Kinda late for an interview right? So I interview and its mostly about situations and that type of thing. We went over photo pass, merchandise, and main entrance operations.
So after my interview on Feb 27th, I was playing the waiting game while applying elsewhere for a J-O-B.....
I decided that this life experienced should somehow be captured, remembered and, of course, shared with all those I care about. I hope that it may also help future students who are curious about the program and have questions. This first post is really long, sorry about that! Lots of information!
Why Did you decide to do the Disney College Program?
Well it was simple. I've always loved Disney and as a marketer I have been fascinated with what they do as a company since I switched majors. They are innovative with their resort in the fact that it is an entire experience, it is unlike 6 Flags or any other theme park I have been ever been to.
My friend Kristen had done the program in Spring 2007, and she is a Disney nut. The experiences, stories and opportunities she had while down there are just tremendous. I kind of wanted to do it after hearing what a time she had down there because there really is no internship like it. It is more than an internship, it's a life experience. I knew I wouldn't have time with my academic schedule to do it, which was a bummer and I hadn't even BEEN to Disney at that point! Scott and I went down in Spring of '08 and I realized how excited I was for the experience and how unique it was, and I was 22 years old at the time. Scott had told me some of his stories being down here, what the housing was like, the classes etc, and after being down there I was really bummed I couldn't go down. We had been talking about moving down and I knew that if we did, the Bentley name wasn't going to get me there alone.
I mulled over the possibilities of right after graduation, this being one of them, and decided I might as well apply. What's the worst that could happen? I could get rejected, or accepted and if I found a job I would just take that.
The Process
So I applied online at www.wdwcollegeprogram.com and asked Kristen about the roles as I went through the checklist (found here) and what each was like. Kristen wanted someone to go with her to the presentation at Northeastern, a short ride with a lot of connections via shuttle and the MBTA, and I agreed since I didn't have class. I watched the presentation which went over the 3 basic concepts of the program, Living Learning and Earning.
Living
It went over where we would live, Disney owns its own apartment complexes down near the property which are fully furnished and rent includes water, electicity, the gym/pool, and "high speed" internet. The cost of rent depends on the number of roommates, more roommates means cheaper rent. Hell yea! I don't really want 7 roommates, so I think I'll go with 5 or 6 if possible. The rent is as low as 80 a week, automaticaly deducted from your check, and as high as like 115. There are 4 apartment complexes with multiple buildings, Vista Way, Chatham, The Commons (international housing), and Patterson Square (brand new!). If you are under 21 you get put in wellness housing, aka no booze for you, but I obviously don't have to worry about that!
Learning
Disney has its own college on campus. How cool is that? It's an accreditated institution and offers courses like:
Advanced Studies in Hospitality Management
Corporate Analysis
Corporate Communication
Creativity & Innovation: Gaining the Edge
Experiential Learning
Human Resource Management
Marketing You
Organizational Leadership
Corporate Analysis
Corporate Communication
Creativity & Innovation: Gaining the Edge
Experiential Learning
Human Resource Management
Marketing You
Organizational Leadership
Sounds like some nifty courses to me! They also have professional development studies, which is more major related...but not marketing ones for me. :( The third type of course is Exploration series which explores more like how Disney works its magic at the parks! I will probably do the marketing one.
Earning
While there you get to earn money, which ranges from 7.21 to 8.50 or so, which is enough to cover costs, but won't leave you with a whole lot. I guess this part is more insignificant for me since I'm not there for the money, I'm there for the experience of it all.
After the presentation and shpeel, the presenter, a very flamboyant cast memeber from the original cast, gives you the phone to schedule a phone interview.
The Interview! AAAH!
The interview was scheduled on Thursday, It was supposed to be at like 11:40 when Kristen and I both could meet. I had to use her phone because it is out of commission with some outstanding bills. Oh well! So we wait and wait and wait, nothing. I ended up calling the hot line and they didn't confirm the number, or even apologize. So much for customer service! We had to reschedule for Friday at 9 pm. Kinda late for an interview right? So I interview and its mostly about situations and that type of thing. We went over photo pass, merchandise, and main entrance operations.
So after my interview on Feb 27th, I was playing the waiting game while applying elsewhere for a J-O-B.....
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