Disney Imagination Campus Blog

“This is the best day I have ever had in my whole life!” one of Dr. Wells’ students shared after their class trip to the Walt Disney World Resort earlier this year. 

Dr. Wells works as the Director of Writing at a college in Florida and recently took her class to Disney to bring her course concepts to life in action at the theme parks.  

This college-aged group took two Disney Imagination Campus workshops during their visit to the Walt Disney World Resort – Immersive Storytelling and Theme Park Design.

Dr. Wells was blown away by the personal attention that her students got from their facilitator Billy. “Everything felt so customized for my group and was applicable to what they were learning in my classroom activities,” she shared. “It was incredible to see them get so excited about learning.”

The students in her class described that it was truly a transformative experience. “I would never have been able to see and experience the things we did during our workshop without Disney Imagination Campus,” Sophie, one of Dr. Well’s students, shared. From learning about the details of storytelling in Toy Story Land, to going to a backstage interactive classroom to design their own mood boards, this workshop brought the college curriculum in Dr. Well’s class to life.

Before coming on her class trip, Molly considered herself a Disney expert and thought she knew everything about the Walt Disney World Resort. But after her class’s experience in the Immersive Storytelling and Theme Park Design workshops, she discovered a whole new world of hands-on learning that applied to her future career goals.

“I went into my experience thinking that I was going to know everything that Billy was saying and that the experience would be very easy for me. I ended up learning so many cool facts that I had not heard before. It was a completely new experience for me,” Molly said.

The students mentioned that one of the best aspects of their Disney Imagination Campus workshops was the hands-on learning. “In school there tends to be a lot of videos and computer work,” one student shared. “But at Disney we were able to go hands-on to think critically, use color swatches to design mood boards and blocks to build our own theme parks. We actually got to go backstage and learn behind the scenes information about how Imagineers create the theme parks.”

“I can’t believe this is available for students!” Dr. Wells expressed.

If there are any teachers hoping to incorporate Disney Imagination Campus workshops into their lesson planning, Dr. Wells shares that it is best to be very intentional in building course curriculum that leads and prepares students for their out-of-class learning experience. It will be intellectually more valuable if they are able to take the lessons they learned in your classroom and see how they are applied to the real world. Student development is at the forefront of Disney Imagination Campus workshops, as the curriculum teaches students to think beyond the classroom to learn skills like project management, research and teamwork.

Want to learn more? Check out our workshops in Arts & Humanities, Science & Technology, Leadership & Innovation and Performing Arts at our East Campus in Walt Disney World Resort and our West Campus in Disneyland Resort for a discovery of real-world application of these concepts in our popular parks and resorts. Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay up to date on all things Disney Imagination Campus and explore all our academic workshops to see how we inspire imagination-powered learning.