For several years at the beginning of this century, I was a coordinator with CIPO (College and International Programs) at the Walt Disney World Resort. My cubicle was in a trailer in a parking lot between the Administration building and the PICO building (which was at the time the headquarters for Epcot Entertainment with rehearsal rooms).
My manager was Danni Mikler, who had been deeply involved in the program for many years after time spent working in Guest Relations. She gave me a great deal of freedom and support for which I continue to be grateful for to this day. It was an eye-opening learning experience to work with college and international cast members.
Coordinators were responsible for many things including picking up international cast members from the airport, getting them settled into their accommodations at their housing complex, taking them to Wal-Mart for the first time (and seeing them overwhelmed by all the choices and then deflated that none of the items were things they liked or wanted…I wish I had a dime for every time I heard how bad all American bread was) and more.
One of my particular responsibilities, especially with my teaching background, was instructing classes including teaching ESOL classes for the Mitsukoshi students working in the Japan pavilion.
Primarily, they wanted to learn American expressions and the differences in word choices like why “thin” and “skinny” have different emotional meanings. Japan had negotiated their contract specifically to have this opportunity. It was not available to the people at the other pavilions.
I was also an instructor for the Cultural Immersion orientation classes that emphasized the differences in cultures and how to get along with roommates from a different culture.
I saw first hand several times how if a student was involved with theft, alcohol, drugs or sexual shenanigans that, in just a few short hours, they could be terminated by Disney, completely packed up from a housing complex and put on a plane.
Even as just a coordinator, I saw plenty of non-Disney things happening, and realized it was just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure readers of this site who were participants in the programs have many interesting stories of their own.
With the opening of Epcot Center, it was the Disney Company who was responsible for the creation of a special visa classification that was meant to provide an opportunity for global understanding through educational and cultural exchanges.
The U.S. State Department developed a new Q1 visa, also known as the “Mickey Mouse visa,” to make it possible for first- and second-generation people from other countries to work in the World Showcase.
Unlike a student visa, the Q1 visa (valid for 15 months but Disney’s program is only a year long) allows recipients to work while maintaining elements of a cultural exchange program, “for the purpose of providing practical training, employment, and the sharing of the history, culture, and traditions of the alien's home country,” according to the State Department.
There were restrictions so Disney couldn’t send one of those cast members over to the Magic Kingdom to sell Mickey Mouse ice cream bars, because they were not representing their country by doing so. They had to be in costume and in their pavilion, although there were exceptions, like special events.
I was recently talking with Disney Legend Bill “Sully” Sullivan who helped open Epcot Center in 1982 when the college program expanded into an international program, as well.
“College and International Programs was something set out by the boss [Walt Disney],” Sully told me. “So we could have that mix in [EPCOT Center], so we could get that international flavor in World Showcase. Yes, I supported it and I supported it strongly.
“We did a lot of training through the Disney University, but we also did it once they got into the field. They had to do three to five days of orientation training, and then we’d take them on the attractions and then introduce them to their jobs. It was much more intensive than today.
“They lived in the Snow White Village Campground, which was an off-property mobile home park in Kissimmee off of 1-92 near the bottom of where 535 dead-ends, and they all became good friends. At the graduation each year, they would go home and they had developed friendships that lasted a lifetime. It was a great program.”
Snow White Village is an interesting but long forgotten part of Disney. In order to provide housing for the students, Disney found an abandoned trailer park in Kissimmee and had the trailers removed since they were falling apart.
Disney had thirty-two new specially designed trailers (to hold several students in each trailer) put in the location that Disney had rehabbed with a swimming pool and recreation center.
A shuttle, on a regular schedule, would take students from the site to the Magic Kingdom to work and later Epcot when it opened. now White Village also had full-time Disney security guards in place to keep an eye on things.
However, there were no phones at the location and Disney purchased cheap furnishings because it was considered just temporary housing. The increasing overflow of students was housed in the Lake Vista Village apartments.
Vista Way apartments, closer to the parks, was more permanent housing and was built and opened in 1988 followed by other additional housing complexes like The Commons (1998), Chatham Square (2000) and Patterson Court (2008).
As early as 1970, Disney had begun partnering with universities to hire small groups of students who would do a semester of work in the summer (the peak season for guests) in exchange for a semester of college credit, as long as the type of work was related to the students’ area of studies. It was originally called the Magic Kingdom College Program.
Doing custodial or food and beverage or whatever roles were broadly presented as being part of learning Disney management and “how Disney does it.” Basically, you learn about a company by starting at the bottom to observe how things operate.
To make this claim more realistic, special classes were offered to the students in addition to their work schedules so it was easier to justify that it was in “the students’ area of studies.”
The program was so popular, and the slots so limited, that Disney accepted only five students from every 300 applicants from colleges. To take advantage of more of these potential cast members, Disney then set up in the early 1980s three separate programs for college students: three months in the spring, summer or fall.
One of my responsibilities was to put together a rough historical outline for the program at Epcot to be used as a guide for publicity, classes and articles.
You will notice it ends in 2005, just after I had moved over as a coordinator of the Epcot Disney Learning Center and had my hands full with other things.
Remember this was for official Disney Company use so I couldn’t include any speedbumps, missteps or problems and it all had to be “Disney positive”.
Even if you put the best and brightest and most responsible young people together, things are still going to happen that are definitely not “Disneyish”. Nature will find a way no matter how many restrictions or how much supervision.
Cast members from Morocco don Mediterranean-inspired garb at Spice Road Table in Epcot's World Showcase. Photo by Lani Teshima.
I am sure there are many things that are missing because even when I was putting this together and working for CIPO, there was just no documentation. Much of the material came from “oral history” of those who were there at the time and back issues of the cast newspaper Eyes and Ears.
There are several books out there about the recent WDW College Program experience, including the “Earns Her Ears” series from Theme Park Press and “I Saw Ariel Do a Keg Stand”.
The history of the Walt Disney World College and International Program is more complex and convoluted (and colorful) than presented here but this is something more substantial and accurate than what exists out there now.
I don’t know if the Disney Company still has a copy of this, or if anyone else continued to update it over the next decade. I suspect the answer is “no” in both cases so I am sharing it here for future historians who want to do additional research.
The Walt Disney World College and International Programs Timeline
Spring 1980
- To explore the possibility of hiring students for the summer of 1980, College Recruiting visits the University of Alabama, University of Georgia and University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. The success of these trips proves that college students are open to working at the Walt Disney World Resort, and Career Services offices support the program. College Recruiting hires 250 students, who live off property during the summer.
Fall 1980
- College Recruiting visits about 30 universities and community colleges east of the Mississippi River to discuss components of the College Program that would be necessary to effectively market the program to Career Services and students.
Spring 1981
- College Recruiting takes the first official trips to recruit for the summer 1981 Magic Kingdom College Program and hires 248 students (two students weren’t able to accept their invitation) from 43 schools. The students live at Snow White Village Campground in Kissimmee.
1981
- The College Program introduces 11 non-credited classroom sessions called Leisure Time Business Management Studies to the program.
Fall 1981
- College Recruiting takes its first official trips to recruit for the spring 1982 Magic Kingdom College Program. This is the first non-summer recruiting effort, and College Recruiting visits 63 schools.
1982
- The International Program begins with 90 Fellowship students, in conjunction with the opening of the eight foreign World Showcase pavilions at Epcot.
Fall 1982
- The first International Recruiting trip goes to Europe (six recruiters for two weeks in four countries).
Spring 1982
- College Recruiting makes 485 offers, and 345 students arrive for the spring program.
Summer 1982
- Walt Disney World Co. successfully applies for a second J-1 Visa which authorizes the Cultural Representative Program.
Spring 1983
- International Recruitment makes its first trip to Mexico, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, and China.
May 1983
- More than 200 Cultural Reps arrive on the one-year J-1 visa.
Spring 1984
- The Magic Kingdom College Program officially changes its name to the Walt Disney World College Program and places students at Epcot for the first time. Prior to this season, all students worked at the Magic Kingdom Park and Magic Kingdom resorts.
Summer 1984
- International Recruitment staffs the opening of the Morocco pavilion for the arrival of 60 candidates.
Fall 1986
- Recruiting for the International Hospitality Program begins.
Spring 1987
- The International Hospitality Program begins with six arrivals from The Hague School in the Netherlands.
April 1988
- Vista Way Apartments opens and becomes the home to all College Program and International Program Cast Members. Price Management (formerly known as Epoch Management) runs the complex.
Spring 1988
- International Recruitment staffs the opening of the Norway Pavilion with the arrival of 150 candidates.
Spring 1989
- College Recruiting begins traveling nationwide to meet its increased hiring goal of 1,000 for the summer of 1989.
- International Recruitment begins the International Culinary Program by hiring authentic chefs for the Norway Pavilion.
Fall 1991
- International Recruitment assists with the recruitment of cowboys and Indians for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at Disneyland Paris Resort.
Fall 1992
- International Recruitment implements the Q-1 Visa for the Cultural Representative Program. College Recruiting begins hiring students for Advanced Internships as part of the College Program.
1994
- The College Program enhances the education component of the program by adding four core classes and three specialized courses: Theme Park Management, Resort Management and Human Resource Management.
1996
- The College Program adds seven core business seminars addressing management issues. The Learning experience also included an independent study program utilizing Centers of Excellence resources. (Centers of Excellence later became the Disney Learning Centers.)
Spring 1996
- International Recruitment begins the International Management Program with the arrival of four candidates.
Summer 1997
- International Recruitment initiates the Brazil Summer program with the arrival of 33 candidates.
Fall 1997
- A third party comprised of College Program alumni coordinates the first College Program Reunion. The event, held on Walt Disney World property, celebrates 15 years of the program.
January 1998
- The Commons apartment complex opens
- International Recruitment staffs the Village of Harambe at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park with the arrival of 80 candidates from sub-Saharan Africa.
May 1999
- International Recruitment staffs the Millennium Village with 200 candidates from 50 countries.
Spring 1999
- International Recruitment staffs the Village of Anandapur with the arrival of 50 candidates from Nepal, India, Thailand and Indonesia.
September 1, 1999
- The College Program debuts on the World Wide Web! The program’s official Web site, wdwcollegeprogram.com, goes online and allows recruiters to make real-time presentation schedule updates, applicants to submit online applications (the data goes directly into Disney's HR database), and invited participants to submit an online acceptance form (the data goes directly into Disney's HR database).
Fall 1999
- International Recruitment contracts 13 Procurement Allies worldwide to assist with recruitment in their respective regions.
2000
- The College Program introduces seven academic-level courses recommended for credit by the American Council on Education. These courses include Communications, Experiential Learning, Human Resource Management, Organizational Leadership, Practicum, Hospitality Management and a Leadership Speaker's Series.
Spring 2000
- International Recruitment hosts the first Procurement Allies Conference.
- College Program leaders host professors and faculty members from around the nation at the first Educators' Forum and roll out the new educational component of the program and a new marketing plan. They also announce the elimination of the summer-only program.
June 2000
- Chatham Square apartment complex opens.
Summer 2000
- Students work on the last summer-only College Program.
- International Recruitment hires 350 South Americans on the Summer Work Program. All candidates lived in apartments located off-site.
Fall 2000
- College Recruiting hires students for the first Spring and Spring Advantage programs. The first regional recruiters are hired and move to regions around the United States.
Fall 2001
- In response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, International Recruitment develops alternative recruitment strategies as contingencies to be implemented if world events preclude International Recruiting from traveling.
May 2002
- The International Hospitality, Culinary and Management programs ends, as a result of immigration regulatory changes.
2003
- The College Program adds the Marketing U! course to its curriculum. (In Spring 2005, the course name changed to Marketing YOU!)
Fall 2003
- International Recruitment implements the International Recruitment Web site.
Spring 2004
- The Education Team introduces the Professional Development Series, with sessions focusing on Finance and Operating Labor Management, Criminal Justice and Engineering.
Fall 2004
- The College and International Programs Alumni Group is established for Alumni who continue to work for The Walt Disney Company. The first Alumni reception was held on November 1, 2004, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. Guest speakers included Lee Cockerell, executive vice president of Walt Disney World Operations, and College Program Alumna and Walt Disney World Ambassador Sara Bishop.
January 2005
- The Walt Disney World College Program officially changes its name to the Disney Theme Parks & Resorts College Program as part of a synergy effort to enhance recruiting strategies for programs at the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney Imagineering. Casting introduces a new Web site, disneycollegeprogram.com.
May 2005
- About 250 Cast Members participate in the first Alumni-Only Summer Program.
Spring 2005
- College Recruiting introduces an online version of its College Program presentation on disneycollegeprogram.com. Candidates can view the presentation online and sign up for a phone interview.
June 2005
- Casting announces the consolidation of all Advanced, Professional and Management Internships. All internships at the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney Imagineering now fall under Disney Theme Parks & Resorts Professional Internships. Professional Recruitment will manage the hiring process for Professional Internships at the Walt Disney World Resort. Casting also introduces DisneyInterns.com, which provides information about Professional Internships and directs candidates to apply online at DisneyCareers.com.
Fall 2005
- The Disney College Program Education Team introduces a new Professional Development Studies class focused on Entertainment.
Summer 2005
- The Walt Disney World Resort hosts about 900 International College Program Cast Members, more than ever before. This also marks the first time International Recruiters have traveled to Bulgaria, Denmark, Russia, Turkey and the Ukraine to hire ICPs.
