8 Months of DCP (Disney College Program)

By Ryan Polk

This book details the 8 months of college student Ryan Polk participated in the competitive Disney College Program

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098360054

Book preview

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Introduction

Are you a fan of Disney? I know I am. How often can you say, I got to do an internship at one of the most visited parks in the United States? The year 2014 will be a year I will never forget, and it still remains a memory within me to this day. May 2014 through January 2015 were the best eight months of my life. I would like to share my experience of working at my favorite park destination. This is a story about my eight months of working for Disney as an intern of the Disney College Program.

Chapter 1

It all started back when I was a senior in high school in the year 2011. My mom took me to Tri-C Community College Eastern Campus to take my placement test for college. While taking my test, she came across this card-like flyer that promoted the Disney College Program. Once I got finished with my test, she showed me the flyer, and I instantly became curious as I began researching on what this was about, since I considered myself a big Disney guru. As I researched, I only became more interested and was impatient to apply for the Disney College Program once starting my college journey. I even showed the flyer to one of the vocational teachers, Mrs. Glass, who was also a big Disney fan herself. We always enjoyed talking about Disney and making Disney references during class. She actually knew about the program and was shocked I did not know about it and informed me about some of the details.

After graduating from Charles F. Brush High School in June of 2011, I attended Youngstown State University (YSU) in the fall the same year. I happened to be in luck because in September of that fall semester, there was an informational meeting about the Disney College Program. It was being presented by a former YSU staff worker by the name of Candice Wands. I went on ahead and attended to get more information, which was good, since I found out that an undergrad at Youngstown State had to complete at least one semester at the university in order to apply.

Being the Disney guru that I was, and still am today, I was thinking about giving a shot at applying to the Disney College Program, then I thought to myself, I’m going to just wait until I get more credits in college. That turned out to be a wise choice by the way. Two years later, during the fall semester of 2013, at YSU with some credits under my belt, I applied for the Disney College Program Spring Advantage 2014. While applying, there was a questionnaire-type process to start. I failed to answer the questions correctly and did not even make it to the phone interview process. Was I mad? I WAS HEATED LIKE A FURNACE! I wanted to be a part of something that was going to be a great experience.

Five months later, in February of 2014 Spring Semester, a second shot came into my hands, and this time, I was pumped and ready as if my life depended on it. After answering the questions, the right way from the questionnaire, I made it to the phone interview process and was so excited to be interviewed for Disney! For one week, I prepared myself by googling questions, and I watched YouTube videos on how to be ready and how to answer the right questions correctly for the phone interview of the Disney College Program. I was so anxious to go that I even made a Facebook post, telling all my friends and family to wish me luck on the interview. Also, in addition to being anxious, I even asked my fellow members of Christian Black Collegiate (CBC), a Christian organization I joined at Youngstown State University in the fall semester of 2012, to pray for my success on our Facebook group page.

When the day came, I had no time for any interruptions or bad Wi-Fi areas, so I went into my car, Buckeey. I named my car after one of the girls from the show Flavor of Love. Lol! Any who, 15 minutes prior to the interview, I said a prayer and waited for the call. During my phone interview, I was energized, friendly, and responded to all questions on time. I made sure I sounded like I wanted to be part of the magic! After the phone interview was completed, I felt good about it and to keep the positive vibe going, I went to go see Saving Mr. Banks at the movies by myself for some reason, thinking it would bring some type of good luck Lol!

Chapter 2

One month later, on St. Patrick’s Day, I received some good luck: a pot of gold in my email. It was the acceptance email from Disney, congratulating me on getting accepted into the Disney College Program! I was the happiest college student on the planet that day. However, when I say some good luck, I mean that as in I was happy with getting in the program but was not happy with the role they were offering me, which was Housekeeping. I thought for sure I held out a low interest for housekeeping on the interview with