I never would have believed that my first official business card would have a picture of Mickey Mouse on it. But here I am, five years after graduating from Syracuse University, working for the Mouse himself.
Tired of Syracuse winters, I applied and was accepted into Disney’s College Program, and later, its Professional Internship Program. I thought I would work at Disney for six months and go home with a great start to my resume. During my internships, I learned about the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and runDisney. Suddenly, I knew I was not going to be spending just six months at Disney World.
I started out working meet and greets at ESPN and runDisney in my quest to move from Main Street USA to Disney Sports. Hard work and networking then landed me a role at Disney Sports as an ESPN event changeover cast member.
SPM professor Michael Veley’s words of wisdom echoed in my head as I continued to network at runDisney, which led to me becoming an endurance event coordinator. This role made me part of all the processes needed to create, execute, and enhance runDisney races, at both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California.
During my time at runDisney, I was selected for Disney’s Emerging Leaders Program, something only about 700 of the 70,000 cast members had been chosen for. I learned Disney’s style of management during a two-month program, which led to my current role as a recreation guest experience manager at the Contemporary Resort. I oversee the pool, lifeguards, marina, children’s activities, the community hall, and specialty cruise operations for the resort.
Disney has given me so many opportunities in the past five years, and still holds so many more. I can’t wait to see where the next five years take me with the company.
