Nicole's Disney College Program Adventure!

Nicole | 26 | Michigan, USA

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Road Trip!

Let me first start this by saying that I was convinced that I hated car rides, and granted, I do; however! This one actually didn’t bother me and I enjoyed myself…minus the arduousness of the drive. I have never been one to scream for a road trip, but then again, until I flew a couple months ago, I’d never have screamed for that either. My dear dad decided to drive down with me and that was more…

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3 Days Before Leaving, 5 to Check In

3 Days Before Leaving, 5 to Check In

Today is my last day working at GRCC (Grand Rapids Community College), which is where I have been working for the past three years. It feels so weird to know that I won’t be working here next week and it’s a bittersweet emotion. I’m looking forward to the new experiences and meeting new people that the DCP (Disney College Program) provides, but leaving is going to be so hard, because I’ve grown…

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So here I am, at the beginning... (tl;dr summary at bottom)

For this first post I thought I’d go into depth a bit on why I decided to participate and the application/interview/acceptance process. Yeah, doesn’t sound like too much work, but it actually is. There’s a lot more going into this than I understood at the start.

1. Decision

It was a few months ago when I heard about the program, and it was in a “Wow! That sounds so cool! Living and working at Disney!” kind of way. In no way was I thinking about this realistically...like the moving there, needing things for the apartment, not knowing what the hell I was doing or had fully gotten myself into. You know, the typical things that should go into a decision, but you don’t really think about them until after you’ve made the decision.

The second to last time (last time was spring break, more on that later) I went to Disney I was 13 years old. All I remembered from then was thinking the Castle was amazing, the “it’s a small world after all” ride gave me a headache, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride being awesome, and Angie (my littlest sister) not being happy on any ride but the carousel. In light of that, I made the decision not to apply.

A few weeks after that my friend Brianna invited me to go to Disney World with her over Spring Break. My initial thought was about funding...could I afford to go? Short answer: no. Long answer: also no, but I got the Disney Visa and off I went. I had so much fun on that trip, it was incredible, and was everything I hoped for and more. It was when we were waiting in the airport that I decided I wanted to do the program.

However, certain events on the plane made me wonder why I was doing it, why was I applying? A couple days after sorting that out, once and for all, I applied to the program. Doing the first impulsive life-altering decision in my entire existence on this earth.

2. Filling Out The Application

Really, this section will probably be the smallest because...well, it was the simplest application I’ve ever filled out in my entire life of filling out applications. Sincerely, all they ask for is work experience and schools attended. Well, okay and the traditional, “legal name, date of birth, ssn,” etc. So there I was. Application complete.

3. Online Interview

This will be relatively small as well, because all you do really for this part of the process is answer questions with the “strongly agreed, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree” and so on. So after, God knows how many questions, I finally completed the online interview. Yay! One more step complete.

4. Phone Interview

About 20 minutes after I completed the online interview I was emailed that I qualified for a phone interview. I scheduled that for the very next day. The phone interview was a little nerve wracking until the woman on the phone and I started talking about working with people from other countries and places of origin. I told her that one of my best friends is from the DR (Dominican Republic) and that my office was a conglomerate of people from all over. She then asked if I could Bachata, and I told her no. She told me I should learn and I joked that “my friend would love that.” (Elino, that’s you.) After that we got into a rhythm and it was smooth sailing from there on out. By the time I hung up, I thought it would be completely unexpected if I was denied, because it went so well.

5. Waiting...it really is the hardest part.

Fortunately for me, I knew in a week. Looking through the DCP facebook page, I was one of the few who found out in less than two months! I consider myself fortunate, but it happened. I was accepted. Then reality set in.

6. Comfort Zone Demolition

Pretty much exactly what that says. This entire experience is bringing me out of my comfort zone and thrusting me, not only, into another state but moving me farther away from my family than I’ve ever been.

7. Planning and Accumulation of Stuff

The planning is still underway, but I’ve started collecting things for the apartment that aren’t provided.

8. Had to make it an even number...because reasons.

I will continue to update this blog for the entire duration of my program, so stay tuned for more! And for anyone who wants to know that doesn’t know, the program I was accepted for was the Fall Advantage that runs from May 15 through January 4. Whoo...so many months.

TL;DR: I got into the Disney College Program, and I’m leaving in May.