I’m Going to Disney World! • Professional Internship Acceptance

On Monday, September 24th, I got the greatest phone call while on break at work – my recruiter from The Walt Disney Company called to offer me a Professional Internship with Disney Meetings at The Walt Disney World Resort in Marketing Strategy! I was walking backstage to take my last 15-minute break when my phone rang with a call from Lake Buena Vista, Florida. I immediately answered, knowing it was most likely someone in Walt Disney World, and sure enough, it was! The call was from my initial phone screen recruiter, Jenni, who is the sweetest women ever. She started the conversation by asking if I was at work because she could see my work schedule and wasn’t expecting me to answer. I told her I happened to be on break when she called, so I had 15 minutes to talk, which was perfect!

Jenni asked me a few questions about how my second phone interview with the hiring managers at Disney Meetings went and if I was still interested in the job after hearing more about it. In fact, she initially made the conversation sound like she was just calling to get some more information from me for the hiring managers, I didn’t actually think she was calling to offer me the role! After some more chatting about my interview, she said “Well, Disney Meetings would love to have you on their team as their Marketing Strategy Intern this Spring, what do you think?” I was at a loss for words… As I was standing backstage of California Adventure at this moment, Minnie Mouse walked by and waved, and I truly thought to myself “what did I do to get so lucky?” because everything I’m experiencing right now is truly a dream come true!

I accepted my role over the phone, and Jenni let me know that I’d be receiving an email with an official offer letter and a link to accept the role. I couldn’t think of a better moment to have received my acceptance, and my recruiter, Jenni, made the experience even more fun by being so excited with me! She was also excited because I was her first offer of the season and she knew how incredibly excited I was to accept. After my 15-minute break was up, I told Jenni I had to go get back to work, and she said, “Now you have to run out there and yell “I’m going to Disney World!”

Luckily, I only had about 25 minutes left in my shift at this point, so I was able to go tell my coworkers the exciting news, and then I was off work shortly after, so I could call my parents and boyfriend to tell them the news. This was an incredibly surreal moment for me because working for Disney in marketing has been my career goal for many years, and to see everything come together and all my hard work during school and throughout all my internships truly pay off was exciting beyond words.

My boyfriend, family, and friends all made getting this news even more fun with how sweet they were in celebrating with me! My boyfriend was beyond excited for me. We’re both happy that this internship works out perfectly with our timeline because he doesn’t graduate until May 2019, and we want to be able to choose where we live after he graduates together. This gives me another “temporary” (and amazing) job for the next 6-months leading up to his graduation, and then we’ll decide where we want to move together! On top of that, my Mom had my roommate, Gracie, pick up flowers to bring home to me! Then, Gracie and I went into Disneyland to get an “I’m Celebrating” pin and load up on way too much sugar, including a cookie shot (the shot glass was made from a chocolate chip cookie and had Baileys inside!) with the excuse that we were celebrating. 😉

I’m incredibly excited to be continuing my journey with The Walt Disney Company, and I’m especially excited to be joining such a fun and unique team at Disney! Disney Meetings is essentially an event planning service for companies and other large functions like conventions and galas at The Walt Disney World Resort. They put on some of the most beautiful event I’ve ever seen inside the theme parks, resorts, and throughout the Walt Disney World Resort properties. I can’t wait to be part of the marketing team for such an incredible service. I know I’ll be sad when my Disneyland College Program comes to an end but knowing that another amazing adventure with Disney is right around the corner makes me incredibly excited to see what the future holds!