Brenna Harris Finds Professional Experience in a Childhood Dream

Brenna Harris Finds Professional Experience in a Childhood Dream
Little Rock high jumper spent last summer as an intern at DisneyWorld
 
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Growing up watching the Disney Channel and every Disney movie that was released, Brenna Harris has always been a fan of anything Disney related. Her first visit to DisneyWorld was before she could even walk and the first time she flew in a plane was to Orlando, for a father-daughter Disney trip. So, imagine her incredible excitement at finding out she was accepted into the Disney Intern Program only to be forced to choose between that and competing in track and field.
 
Currently a Business Management major at UA Little Rock, Harris was accepted into the program with a hard start date of late April. After talking the predicament over with her family and her very understanding coaching staff, Harris chose to miss the final month of the outdoor season and headed to Orlando, ears and all.
 
Since we just KNOW that college students love getting extra homework, we prevailed upon Harris to describe her experience in her own words.
 
BRENNA HARRIS – IN HER OWN WORDS
 
Why Disney?
When I was in middle school, I spent a lot of my time watching vlogs on YouTube and one day I came across a video of a girl who worked at Disney! My mind was blown with how she was in college and working at Disney. I knew immediately that was something I wanted to do. I watched hours and hours of the application process, packing videos, day in my life, moving vlogs and highlights of people doing what I dreamed of doing one day. As a 14-year-old, I made it a goal and a dream of mine to do this once I was in college. By the way at this point in my life, competing in track and field in college wasn't even a thought in my mind. 
 
 Application and Acceptance
I applied my freshman year for the summer of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the college program for two years. I was devastated.
 
As soon as I found out it reopened in September 2021, I ran to do it. The application process was different after COVID, and I only had an application and a web-based interview – there was no longer a phone interview. Another big change was that applicants could no longer have a say in what type of job they wanted or when that internship period would occur. At that point I was a full-time collegiate student-athlete competing in track and field. There was little hope that I would be accepted and not have to give up a full year of track. Nevertheless, I put my dates in for May-August of 2022 and prayed that I would get dates that would allow me to be able to do this. Fast forward to November of 2021 where I had completely forgot I applied for this internship. I was in class on a random Wednesday and got an email from Disney. I opened it and saw, "YOU"VE BEEN ACCEPTED!" Immediately I broke down into tears right there in the middle of class (sorry, professor! 😬).
 
At Disney
I didn't receive my role until just two weeks before I moved to Orlando, when I found out that I would be working in Food & Beverage, Quick Service, Outdoor Vending in Magic Kingdom (that's short for popcorn, churros, drinks and ice cream stands within the park).
 
On April 25, I moved to Orlando and shared an apartment that was only a 12-minute drive to Magic Kingdom with three other Disney interns.
 
My first day was April 29 and I had an eight-hour course on Disney's Traditions and Values, spending all day in a room watching videos of people talk about working at Disney. But then it happened – I got to meet Mickey Mouse (MY BOSS!!!) and I officially became a cast member! We got our nametags at that point! I was the happiest I had been in a while. I met some amazing people that first week and was so excited to start fulfilling my dream!


 
Places I Worked
We had different costumes for each place we worked within Magic Kingdom and were scheduled different places each day. It was very overwhelming at first, but I learned to love the way it was different every day.

1. East Side (Fantasyland and Circus)
2. Tomorrowland
3. West Side (Frontierland and Adventureland) 
4. Main Street
5. CIF (Call in Factor – this could be worn anywhere)

 
Challenge after Challenge
The first month of working was probably the hardest month of my life. The first week I was there, my great-grandmother passed away and I flew home for 36 hours to be with my family for that. It was a heartbreaking experience, but I knew she had been so excited for me to go live out my dream. In the next couple of months, I learned a lot of things about myself – self-control, time management and being able to wake up and go to work every day. I was working nine-plus hour shifts at a time, many days from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. I would be closing every night and not getting home until 3 a.m. It was hard – work, eat, sleep, repeat – all in the most magical place on earth which eventually stopped feeling so magical. I barely felt like going to the parks on my off days and I wanted to go home. I called my parents crying more times than I can count. 
 
After six weeks, I tested positive for COVID. I was out of work for a week and a half and during this time I had a lot of time to think. It made me realize that I was wasting my dream of living in Disney and working here and that I wanted to make the most out of the time I had left. I came back from COVID, and it really became a turning point in the summer for me. I got back to work, and I met so many amazing friends that I had just not connected with before. I learned to love my job and I changed my mindset from "I have to" to "I get to."
 
My Experiences
I was able to experience so many fun things, this would probably turn into the longest paper I would ever write in college, so I'll break it down into some bullet points:
 

• We had backstage tours of different rides such as Haunted Mansion, The Tower of Terror, Rockin' Roller Coaster and so many more. 
• I got to do sunrise yoga at 5 a.m. in front of the castle in an empty Magic Kingdom (this was my favorite thing to experience). Even Mickey and Minnie came out to do it with us! (The mice are more flexible than you would imagine!)
• I tried out for a character performer role – it was the first in-person audition since 2019. We had to do an animation sequence to a song (act like a character for six 8-counts, a four 8-count dance and then act like a villain for six 8-counts). This was INSANE and so much fun. It's crazy at how much goes into choosing who is performing. 
• We had Earidescent Evenings (where the park closed for the night and from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. for a cast member only event). There were free mickey bars, free drinks, no lines for any rides – they had them at all four parks, but I did mine in Hollywood Studios. We had a dance party with Chip and Dale! It was so much fun! We got cool lanyards and a token signed by the president of Walt Disney World. 
• I also got to work these events for cast members only at Magic Kingdom and my shifts for these were 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. We gave away all kinds of food and drinks – the cast members were so nice to us working. It was a party! There was music and dancing and it was a dream come true. 
• I went to Universal for the first time ever and loved it!!
• Some of my family and friends came to visit me and I got to show them where I worked, little secrets of Disney and so much more fun experiences that became so much better because I worked there. 
• There is this store that is cast members only – Cast Connections – and it has discounted merchandise and so many cool things such as furniture from different resorts, bath robes, pins, clothes and even a food section with fruit, veggies, meat, cheese, milk and the best of them all – chicken fingers. This was so useful to be able to budget for food each week. 
• I also got to resort hop and find different spots in each of the resorts. For example, the Polynesian has a really cool tiki bar, Saratoga Springs has AMAZING pizza, Coronado Springs has such good Mexican food, etc. 
• I was able to go to the water parks for free!
• Being able to go to the parks alone on a random day has to be one of the best ways to mentally reset after a hard week. Grabbing lunch or dinner somewhere in Epcot was one of my favorite things to look back on and see how much I grew throughout my time there. Before that experience, I would have never gone anywhere alone to do anything. 

 
It Wasn't All Fun and Games

• Some guests (they aren't called customers at Disney) were not the nicest at all. I had to intervene in so many screaming fights between families and kids that we had to stop because of safety. 
• We once had a rainstorm while I was working on Main Street next to the castle during firework rush and time (so 8 p.m.) – it was POURING rain. Main Street stays open during rain so we were open, but people were trying to get into our cart and behind the registers to stay out of the rain. That is a VERY BIG safety violation so we were screaming telling them to move and leave and go inside the shops to get out of the rain. People were shoving cameras in our faces videoing us telling us how disrespectful we were as cast members and that we didn't deserve to work at Disney. I had to call security, our management team, and 911 during this storm because of how badly the guest were treating our cast members. I wouldn't work on Main Street for a week after this. 
• During the last two weeks of work, I was scheduled in Tomorrowland. I had been there since 11 a.m. and it was now 7 p.m. I had a nosebleed on my way to work that day and wasn't feeling the best but still had to go in. I was working alone at the cart, and I had a line of 25 guests getting upset with how long it was taking with just one worker at the time. I am helping two ladies when I look up and there is blood pouring from my nose! I had to call over the radio for help because I couldn't leave the cart. The guests in line were so angry with me not serving them, but I couldn't since it was a safety violation. NOT FUN!

 

What I Learned
This experience taught me so much about myself, but also taught me what I want in a management team whenever I get into the world of business after college. As a Business Management major that will be graduating in the spring, learning these things early on will help me find exactly what I want. 
 
At Disney, the Disney College Program participants are the last people on the totem pole – and I understand that – but the management at Disney treated us as though we were absolutely nothing. We worked 55-plus hours a week (more than full time) and had no say in anything we did. It was hard to understand and get past that, but it was more of a lesson than I thought. Going into the business world, I want to be able to have a voice in the company that I am working for and be able to explain my thoughts and feelings with my coworkers and supervisors.
 
I also learned about how many different types of people are out there and how to learn about, communicate with and respect different cultures and people. I had the opportunity to work with people from so many different types of places such as Haiti, England, Ireland, Scotland and so many other places from around the world. That taught me life lessons that I will take with me into the business world. 
 
Being a student-athlete, I have had to learn to push through the tiredness, the hurt, the "Don't want to do it" days and this helped me in Disney more than I could ever imagine. Being able to know that I could get through these days by relating it back to 8 a.m. lifts, practice every day and so much more that I have had to deal with every day as a student-athlete. Being able to push through my 12-hour shifts reminded me of having to push through a hard workout. Being able to smile to a guest during a hard day reminded me of having to congratulate the girls I jump against when I compete. Being a student-athlete has taught me discipline, time management and teamwork. Being able to see how those correlates to me working in the real world in a corporate job has given so much appreciation for being able to be a student-athlete. 
 
 
Harris will be among the many student-athletes competing for the Maroon and Silver this week at the Little Rock Invitational, held at the Coleman Sports Complex on campus on April 6-7. She is scheduled to compete Friday morning in the javelin and the high jump. Action in those events begins at approximately 10:45 a.m.
 
For the latest information on Little Rock Track & Field, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockTFXC on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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