Environmentality & Sustainability - Week 7

To say that today's class was the most interesting two hours I ever spent in a classroom would be a major understatement.

The topic: Animal Care
The speaker: Joseph, the Zoological Manager at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
The result: a blissful Megan

I absolutely loved everything about today's class. Joseph gave the class a brief overview of animal care and enrichment at Disney, told us about a typical day in the life of an animal keeper, gave us inside information on how the animals are taken care of and trained at the Lodge, told us about what makes the Lodge unique from Animal Kingdom, and even gave advice for people who were hoping to break into the zoological field!

I learned a ton of useful information today. For example, I learned that training is not only used for medical care, but animals can also be trained so that they can get exercise, keep their mind stimulated, or to get rid of a behavioral problem. We also learned about some problematic animals at the Lodge, such as one gazelle who likes human contact a little too much, which often puts her in dangerous situations! Joseph told us about how he got into the company, how he worked for a variety of different zoos and wildlife centers, and the tasks he does on a daily basis. He talked about how keepers do a lot of cleaning, but how they also have other really cool responsibilities at the Lodge, such as giving private safaris of the four different savannas, and having dinner at one of the signature dining restaurants with Guests. They also get to observe animal behavior, design enrichment activities for the animals, have guest interaction to share conservation messages, and work on training the animals.

The one important thing I took away from today's class is that I finally realized that animal keeping and training is really what I want to do with my life. It's always been something that I thought I wanted, but after hearing Joseph describe his day in the life and learning more about the kinds of things keepers do, it made me realize that I definitely want a career doing this in the future.

However, that's not even the coolest thing that happened during class today! I went up to introduce myself to Joseph and ask him a couple of questions after class, and I told him that I was applying for an internship with a zoo for next semester, and he asked me to sit down with him so that he could prep me for the interview! How amazing is that?!?! I got to sit down with a zoological manager at Disney World and he shared with me the types of common questions you get asked, the important things to mention, and told me how to make my personality stand out through the interview. I was amazed that he took the time to sit down with me and actually help me develop my future! It just goes to show how small and amazing a company Disney is, and how Cast Members truly do look out for one another.

I'm so thankful for all of the opportunities I've had through taking this environmentality & sustainability course at Disney. I can't even imagine doing half of the activities I've done or meeting half the people if I hadn't been enrolled in this course. For those of you considering taking classes at Disney, I HIGHLY recommend it!!!

Meet & Greet with Jeff - Environmentality Teacher

This morning I had a meeting with Jeff, my teacher for my Environmentality & Sustainability class. I met Jeff at his office in Vista Way and we talked for about thirty minutes about the rest of my time here in Orlando and how to effectively network with my remaining time. Jeff was extremely helpful, especially because I really didn't know what direction to head in in terms of networking. Jeff suggested that the next two weeks in class would be very beneficial to me and that I should take the opportunity to introduce myself to our guest speakers and let them know that I am interested in their work and ask them questions. He explained that the speakers are there on their own time, and that the speakers like having questions asked, because then they don't feel like they wasted their time to come speak with us.

Jeff also gave me some helpful hints about when to use business cards and hand out resumes, and what kinds of things I can do now to help me apply for professional internships in the future. Because I am not planning on applying for a professional internship in the next few semesters, I felt like I didn't know how to best network to help myself in a year or two, but Jeff explained to me that staying in touch with a simple email is a great and effective way to continue networking into the future.

I now feel like I have a little more direction in my networking experiences, and I have some plans to get in contact with other people in order to help myself move forward with the Walt Disney Company.

For those of you thinking about doing the DCP or just for anyone interested, meet & greets are extremely effective ways to network and make connections with the company, and I highly recommend starting sooner rather than later!

Meet & Greet at The Seas

Today I had the most amazing experience; I had a meet and greet with Lisa, one of the dolphin trainers at The Seas in Epcot! Let me start this off by saying that there are only five, yes FIVE, dolphin trainers that work for the Walt Disney World Resort, so having the opportunity to meet her and talk to her is truly amazing!

Let me back up a bit by explaining how I got here, and then I'll tell you all about my time with Lisa! So, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a conservation biology major and a psychology minor and my goal is to work with animals after I graduate, hopefully in the animal training/behavior field. Obviously Disney is the dream, which is why I am here right now, but really I would love to work at any zoo or aquarium. So, that being said, about a year ago over winter break I went to work with my dad to help him file papers and all that kind of fun office stuff. Long story short, I ended up having lunch with some of my dad's coworkers and telling them about my school experience and what my plans for the future were. Lisa is his coworker's niece, and she is a dolphin trainer at The Seas. She was kind enough to put me in contact with Lisa, and I have been speaking with her since about this time last year. We spoke on the phone about breaking into the marine mammal/training field and she offered me advice about where to go with my career and education path. Then, when I got accepted to the DCP, I sent her an email telling her I would be living in Florida for 7 months. Since I've been in Orlando, we've been in contact, and we were able to set up a time for me to go meet with her at work and learn a little more about her job and what life is like at The Seas!

Flash forward to today, when I met Lisa at The Seas for the very first time! She was truly amazing, and did more than I would have ever imagined. First, she gave me my own personal tour of the aquarium from the guest's perspective. We talked about all the different kinds of fish, how they are collected, their care, and she gave me some fun facts about the aquarium. Fun fact: The entire Epcot ball could fit inside the aquarium tank and there would still be room for someone to swim around the entire ball!

Then, we went backstage and I got to see what the facilities look like from a Cast Member and trainer perspective! I was completely shocked by how huge the aquarium truly was (you can't tell from the aquarium windows). I even got to go see the dolphins while they were resting and learn about dolphin enrichment and training, which is something I am SOOOO interested in.

Finally, we went back on stage and talked about breaking into the field. I asked Lisa how she got to where she was, and she said it's all about working hard, networking, and of course, a little bit of luck. I asked her what kinds of things I should be doing to get myself prepared for a career in the field, and she said to volunteer and get as many internships as possible, because internships turn into jobs! Luckily for me, I'm already scuba certified, which is a huge step in the right direction, since most internships/jobs require you to be scuba certified to work there. I also asked about the professional internship (Marine Mammals) and what kind of stuff I could do to best prepare for the application process. It's an EXTREMELY competitive internship, but it's a dream of mine and the advice she gave me was great and will hopefully help me reach my goal!

After meeting with Lisa, I stuck around to watch the dolphin training session downstairs and I got to talk to one of the professional interns, Jenna. She told me about how she landed the experience, and to just keep volunteering, working hard, and wished me good luck with everything! Also, the dolphins were amazing. The dolphin I watched, Calvin, was doing a test where he saw a moving picture and then was shown three pictures, and he had to choose the correct one that he originally saw. The whole idea of the training/research is to try to see how dolphins think/learn so that we can better understand them.

I am so thankful for my time with Lisa. She is an amazing person to talk to, and truly went above and beyond with her time with me. I'm not kidding when I say that I was hoping we could grab a cup of coffee or something, so imagine my surprise when she offered to take me around the entire aquarium!! I had a great day and learned so much that I definitely will put to use when it's time to apply for internships in the future.

So, thanks to Lisa for all of her help, and thanks to all of you for reading this and joining me on my journey! If you have any specific questions, PLEASE feel free to ask me, I love answering questions about my time here!

Resume Writing

On Friday morning, I attended a course on resume writing led by the Disney College Program Education team. The course itself wasn't too exciting or thrilling, but the information I learned from it was extremely helpful! I figured out that I will actually have to rewrite the majority of my resume to make it seem more professional and more job-oriented. 

The course was an overview to writing an effective resume. We talked about dos and don'ts, best practices, how to cite the DCP on your resume, and many more things! The instructor was super energetic and he really knew what he was talking about. He gave us a lot of examples and answered every question. My favorite part of the course was when he showed us data from an experiment. The data showed where recruiters eyes spent the most time on a resume, which was so interesting. The moral of the story was to keep your resume clean, leave white space, and have a format that draws the readers' eyes all the way to the bottom of the page. 

As a bonus, the teacher of the course is also my instructor for my Environmentality and Sustainability Course, which I start on Thursday, so I know that I'm really going to enjoy that already!

As always, if you have any specific questions about the course or anything I learned during it, don't hesitate to let me know!

Professional Internship Insight Series - Meet the Recruiters

An awesome part of the Disney College Program is the fact that they host so many classes, seminars, and series. These programs are designed to help current CP's learn more about the company, learn about the company's values, learn about a career with Disney, and learn about future opportunities. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend the first session of the Professional Internship Insight Series. In this session, about 80 college program members met with Professional Internship recruiters to learn the ins and outs of applying, obtaining, and keeping a Disney Professional Internship.

To start, I will explain what a Professional Internship is. A PI is an internship with Disney that is designed to give college students and recent graduates the opportunity to gain real world experience within their field of study in the Walt Disney Company. Disney offers hundreds of PIs in fields such as marketing, communications, entertainment, human resources, animal programs, and many, many more. Since I am a Conservation Biology major, I am extremely interested in their Animal Programs internships.

To start off the night, the panel of recruiters hosted a FAQ session. They went through a series of frequently asked questions about the application, interview, and hiring process. This was really helpful because I learned that it can literally take a manner of seconds for them to eliminate you as a candidate for a position. I also learned what kinds of things need to be on my resume to make it stand out, and I learned about the interview process for internships.

After the FAQ session, we broke down into smaller groups so that we could do individual networking with the recruiters who recruited for our positions. I talked to Ernesto, who recruited for a variety of positions including HR, Entertainment, and Animal Programs. The networking session was cool because it was the first opportunity I had to talk with someone in that field, however the session was also a little stressful. The one thing I will say about Disney is that once you are in, they want you to stay in the company. The entire night made me feel as though they didn't care how long it took me to complete my degree, which is something that is extremely important to me. Regardless, the whole session was interesting and helpful and I'm glad that I attended.

As a side note, these sessions are something I intend to take complete advantage of. Tomorrow morning I am attending a session on Resume Writing and I am planning on going to several more as the weeks go on. The information made available in these sessions is invaluable to my career and my future!

If you have any specific questions about what was covered in the seminar, please feel free to leave your question in the comments below, or get in contact with me! I would love to give you any more details about the session and the information I received.