Disney Dreamers Mentored by Prominent African American Celebrities and Business Professionals
Each year Walt Disney World selects 100 students and teens throughout the country to participate in a coveted opportunity.
The annual program is four days long but packs decades of career training, networking, and career education within that time frame. Applying to the Disney Dreamers program is worth the effort.
“We are excited and honored to celebrate 15 years of Disney Dreamers Academy with this year’s class,” said Tracey D. Powell, Walt Disney World Resort Vice President and Disney Dreamers Academy executive champion. “We’ve embraced this opportunity to amplify the event, and we’re thrilled to introduce new experiences, new career programs and new mentors.”
According to Walt Disney representatives, those new experiences include career-building workshops, networking sessions, mentorship connections and introductions to future professional opportunities at The Walt Disney Company and beyond.
The 2022 Disney Dreamers are given carte blanche access to some of the greatest minds and top professionals within their respective fields. A point worth marinating. Consider meeting Film Producer and Writer Ralph Farquhar, whose name appears on so many familiar shows including the newly revamped “The Proud Family”; Kelly L. Carter, ESPN’s “The Undefeated”; Scripps 2021 National Spelling Bee Champion “Zalia Avant-Garde”; Andre Robinson, award-winning voice and film actor. There is also a good mix of very seasoned professionals and younger professionals that are the same age group as Dreamers and perhaps some a bit younger. But the purpose is the same – to gain knowledge about what it takes to be successful in any career of choice and understand that success includes setbacks and failures.
Day one started with a cavalcade featuring Kelly Rowland, Dreamer’s Academy Ambassador and the 100 Dreamers and an evening welcome celebration hosted by two former Academy graduates. The first day ended with a fireworks spectacular at Epcot’s French Island.
On day two Dreamers got lessons in networking and career training at the Disney Dreamers Career Academy. Dreamers were divided into groups based on career interests. The sessions included: Academy of Entertainment, Design, Media, Sports and Storytelling; Academy of Business, Social Media and Service Careers; and Academy of Sciences, Technology and Storytelling. Within these training sessions, the students interacted with Disney cast members and top professionals. There were also Deep Dive sessions at Disney University and throughout the campus. These sessions focused on careers in government, law, filmmaking, animation, graphic design, music, ASE, NatGeo and Entrepreneurship.
Day Three focused on image and branding. On hand for the branding session was Traci Powell, Walt Disney Executive; Mikki Taylor, TV personality, writer, and speaker. You may know her as a media icon formerly of Essence Magazine, and Lisa Nichols, motivational speaker, media personality and CEO of Motivating the Masses, Inc.
Nichols encouraged Dreamers to embrace who they are without apology and to understand that success is personal and is defined by each of us individually.
“Every day is a new day to write your story the way you want to write it,” proclaims Nichols. “You don’t have to start number 1. You don’t have to finish number 1. You just have to finish in a state that feels good to you.”
Day three also hosted the popular Conversations with… which is a live interactive interview series with celebrity and professional guests. Guests who spoke live on stage with host and reporter Janai Norman of “Good Morning America” were retired NBA player Quentin “Que” Richardson, Bruce Smith, creator and Executive Producer of The Proud Family and The Princess and the Frog, and Prentice Penny, Award-Winning Writer, Director and Producer of Insecure.
Sunday’s finale culminated in the Disney Dreamers Academy graduation ceremony.
Here are the Texas students who were selected to participate in the 2022 Disney Dreamers Academy. We wish them all the best!
-Maya Burns, McKinney
-Marcus Drake, Rockwall
-Samuel Draper, Converse
-Theodore Hervey, San Antonio
-Elizabeth Mielke, Prosper
-Baani Sandhu, Irving
-Andre Scott, Humble
-Mason Thenor, Cypress
-Destiny Weeden, Killeen
