Credits: Camila Gambirasi
You may think that working at Disney is a far away dream, but even Cinderella taught us an important lesson: “a dream is a wish your heart makes”. These girls are here to prove you wrong!
Alice Tsukamoto, Camila Gambirasio, Helena Brites and Giovanna Pegorer are Cásper Líbero student’s that wished very hard with their hearts and made the dream come true, as they went to ICP.
If you haven’t heard this term yet, ICP is short for International College Program, a three month internship and work program offered by Walt Disney World, in which you can become a Cast Member (how people that work at Disney are called) during your summer vacation.
Giovanna, a senior Public Relations student, had never been to Disney before ICP, and officially worked with Merchandising (which means she worked at stores mostly selling products) at EPCOT, but also had the chance to work in other parks – with the exception of Animal Kingdom.
Disney has four dormitories in which interns Cast Members get to live, and Giovanna lived at Commons with three other girls, a Brazilian, an American and an Italian.
She pointed out that no matter the role you have, it is not easy to work at Disney, since the shifts are exhausting and the work is heavy. However, she guarantees it is still worth it. She also says that smiling is the key to any job, because you are there to provide the best attendance you possibly can.
Making what Disney calls Magical Moments is also an important part of the daily work. It reminds her once when she played castles with a girl for one hour and it made her day. She also states that helping Brazilians is always a Magical Moment, because when they realize there are people that can speak Portuguese, they get really happy.
Credits: Giovanna Pegorer
Camila, a junior in Journalism, had been to Disney several times before ICP, and that is actually how she became aware of it: “I was about thirteen, and I talked to a Cast Member who was doing ICP, and she told me all about the program”.
When asked about her PDP (post Disney depression), she mentions how difficult it is to come back to real life after doing the program: “When you’re there, it seems like you’re living a dream, you forget about your real life”.
She also worked with Merchandising at a resort called Disney’s Yatch and Beach Club, which is near EPCOT, and lived at Commons with four Brazilian roommates.
For her, Disney has some proceedings that are very thorough, so you have to get used to the job and learn exactly how they want things to be done. But this applies to all the roles, not only Merchandise. She also says that dealing with money is not easy, and it is even worse because it is not yours, so you have to learn the value of every coin in order to do it right.
One special Magical Moment for her was when she gave a cookie to a birthday girl . The girl got very surprised and thankful for it. What made it special was the fact that it was one of her first Magical Moments, and she claims that she’ll never forget it.
Credits: Alice Tsukamoto
As for Alice Tsukamoto, a former Cásper Líbero student who graduated from Radio & TV in 2015, dealing with PDD is planning her next program – Disney offers other work and internship programs besides ICP.Alice has already completed the PG, which is short for Park Greeter and is willing to apply for another one soon.
While in ICP, she worked as a Character Performer, the role she wanted to have since her friend, who was also a Character Performer during his program, told her she had the right height for the role.
She lived at a dorm called Patterson with five other girls, two Americans, one Chinese, one Mexican and one Italian.
For her, the worst part of being a Character Performer was the difficulty in communicating: “As you can’t speak when wearing your costume, you have to communicate by gestures, which is a little hard”.
But the great part is that this role is practically creating Magical Moments all the time: “There was a day I was working at a restaurant as Daisy and a mother showed me a picture of her son and asked me if I remembered him, since they used to have dinner with Daisy every year. Then she told me he wasn’t able to be there that year because he was in Iraq, and as she started to cry I started to cry inside my costume”.
Credits: Helena Brites
Helena Brites, a senior in Public Relations at Cásper, had been to Disney before doing ICP when she was nine, and then again on her fifteenth birthday.
She worked with Merchandise in a store called Big Top Souvenirs at the Storybook Circus, which is inside Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom, and it was the role she was looking forward to working in.
She lived at Chattam Square with two other girls, one from New Zealand and one from Australia. They got along pretty well and still talk to each other.
The routine was no trouble to this girl: “To be honest, I adapted very well, I’ve always liked to travel. At my store I had the chance to work with production – we prepared candies, such as caramelized apples and cake pop – and this was the heaviest work in terms of physical strength, but I liked it. There were shifts that ended by dawn, and they would always put ICP people to do it, so it was fun. I was the only Brazilian in my store and I made lots of friends there”.
She also talked about a Magical Moment that was really important not only for her but also for Savannah, a woman who suffered from mental illness and behaved as a child. Savannah got lost during her visit to the park. Giovanna said: “I ended up finding her at the store and started talking to her. She didn’t want to speak to me until she saw my nametag.
After a long time talking about Tinker Bell parade she had seen, sweets and her visit to Ariel, she thanked me for finding her and for the conversation. She asked me to sign her autograph notebook, and I wrote ‘Kiss to my favorite princess, Savannah. With love, Helena’.
She hugged me with an enormous smile on her face and said that now we were friends, and she would always remember me for not letting her get lost”.
The girls were unanimous in saying they recommend the program. Other tips from them: practice your English before your interview, do a lot of research about the program and Disney as a company and enjoy every moment of your ICP, because it flies by really fast!