“Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles.” This Chinese proverb means that knowledge should be connected with practice; looking at it through a post-secondary perspective, it could mean that when people acquire knowledge from school, they should use it in society.
Camosun College is practicing this proverb with a co-op program that sends students to work at Disney World.
Camosun College Business co-op employment facilitator Jacquie Burden says the program began around 2011 as a partnership between Camosun, Disney World, and University of California, Riverside.
“They thought, ‘Oh, let’s open up this to Canadian students,’ because Walt Disney World needs college students to run Disney World,” says Burden. “Every year, they need more and more and more and more, so all over the place Disney World partners with universities to get their students to work there for six months. It’s called the Disney collegiate program, and approximately 17,000 students are working there at any time. The students are getting work experience credit for working there, and they get paid. They’re there for five and a half months.”
Burden says that the program is not just good for work experience and credit: it’s a lot of fun.
“Is it just for fun? Absolutely for fun,” says Burden. “You meet people from all over the world while you work there, because you live there. The other thing is when you are looking for a job in Victoria, if you have ‘Walt Disney World employee’ on your resume, this is unique. This makes you stand out.”
Camosun Business Administration student Kelsey Hong has taken the co-op program; she says that it’s a unique opportunity.
“You learn a lot about the Walt Disney World Company, and you learn a lot of business skills, and you can apply it to the workplace while you work for them,” says Hong. “For me, it was the first time being away from friends and family, being by myself, and living away from home. I learned a lot about who I am as a person and what I’m capable of and what I can do.”
There will be an information session about the Disney World co-op happening at 12 pm on November 2 at Centre for Business & Access room 271, at the Interurban campus and at 9:15 at Fisher 328 at Lansdowne. More information can be found here.