How I Got Started in Learning & Development - Disney University
I've always been a teacher at heart. As a kid, I stood on the landing in the entry way of our home "teaching" invisible students in our living room. An academic teacher wasn't my future, but a teacher I became. As a child, not only was a fantastic teacher to imaginary students, I was also a huge Disney fan. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when I started a job at Disneyland in 1997, while I was in college. I'll go into more of my Disney experience in other posts, but it was amazing to get my learning and development start at the Happiest Place on Earth.
In 2000, I applied to the Disney University (DU) for a trainer position. As an attractions hostess, this was additional duties I would do in addition to working on attractions. It was great timing to join the DU because Disneyland was going through a massive transition to The Disneyland Resort, opening a new theme park (Disney California Adventure), a new hotel (The Grand Californian), & a huge shopping & dining district (Downtown Disney). This enormous expansion led me to being able to present a lot of training. I was selected for the Attractions & You team, the attractions line of business orientation program. This was a 1 day class that was taught after Traditions, the first day of orientation for new employees.
The leaders of the DU at were fantastic. The 12 of us Attractions & You trainers had a few weeks of focus on learning the content and presentation practice with feedback. I learned so many presentation/facilitation tips for professional training. Getting trained at the Disney level of training created my standard for training and learning & development that I hold to this day. Over the next year and a half I trained around 2 or so classes a week with sizes between 20-80 new employees. With the large group with theme park tour included, we always had multiple trainers. This set me to understand how to co-teach and the strength of a great team. I also lucked out because I became very close to most of the team. Many of them are still my best friends today.
I continued with the DU until 2005. I did another round as an Attractions & You trainer, which was fun time. I expanded my development with DU by becoming a trainer for the new trainer class (Teaching Disney Magic), new lead training class (Leading Disney Magic), & eventually I served 1 year as an orientation trainer for The Walt Disney Company at the Disney Studios. That was so epic! In 2002, I worked as a Training Tool Developer for Disneyland, translating location operating guidelines into trainer guides. Rounding out my training experience of templates and content creation.
That's a quick summary of how I got started. What else would you like to know about my experience and training at Disney in general?
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