When you are training with the Disney company, you wear a ribbon on your name tag that says “earning my ears.” After a while, you take it off and some people casually remark that you’ve “earned your ears,” but nobody actually gives you a set of ears. Until you graduate.
Toward the end of every college program, there is a big event called a “service celebration” which acts as a graduation for College Program and International College Program participants. Because everyone has different schedules, there are actually several consecutive days of service celebrations. At least this time, they were held at Chatham Square field (practically right outside my door.) This made attending the event very convenient for me.
The event lasted from 2 to 5 p.m., so I met a friend shortly before it began on the last day of celebrations and stood in line for several minutes to get a wristband. We then started going from line to line, collecting the various artifacts in store. There was no particular order in how one received these artifacts, so we tended to jump in the closest line, whether or not we knew where the line would take us. Everyone received a certificate of completion suitable for framing and signed by Meg Crofton, President of Walt Disney World Resort. We also gathered a wind chime, a commemorative poster, and a leather photo box with the Disney Internships logo. We stood in another line to receive a Christmas cookie and our very own graduation ears, for which I had been waiting an incredibly long time. We got our pictures taken in front of banners before heading off to another very important line – the one to get a photograph with Mickey and Minnie. I made sure to be wearing the exact same dress I wore to my high school graduation, my college graduation, and the high school graduations of both my siblings. It was pretty important. For lunch, they served a barbecue buffet. I chose to have a pulled pork sandwich, macaroni and cheese, and corn on the cob, washed down with some sweet tea and topped off with a snickerdoodle cookie.
The usual DJ, DJ Miles, provided entertainment. Throughout the evening, the event organizers held little challenges with prizes as incentives. These included trivia, scavenger hunts for random items, and dance participation. My half-hearted attempts at dancing earned me a Snow White jewelry box that was “created for the Cast, Crew and Imagineers in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” It’s pretty impressive.
Over the course of the afternoon, I encountered quite a few people I knew. It’s amazing to reflect on how many people from a wide range of backgrounds one can meet in a short amount of time. This event provided me the opportunity to catch up with them for one of the last times and reminisce about all the experiences I’ve had on the college program. This service celebration was definitely worth attending, and I’m so glad to have had the opportunities I celebrated at this event.
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