Disney Leadership Experience
The Disney Leadership Experience provides students with tools to be the leaders who shape tomorrow. During the fall semester, a cohort of 20 students from all classes engage in an accelerated leadership experience through workshops, building a foundation of leadership principles and shared philosophy. Workshops include topics such as modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging those around them.
Following workshops, students take part in a six day, five night experience at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL attending three Disney Imagination Campus workshops. These educational programs focus on Leadership Strategies, Techniques of Teamwork, and Theme Park Design. Students will understand how Disney develops leaders and creates magical experiences for their guests and cast members, while connecting back to their own leadership experiences at Stonehill. Students will engage through group learning and individual educational breakout sessions, participate in experiential activities in the Disney Theme Parks, and develop an action plan for accomplishing their student leadership and career goals.
The following are the intended outcomes for students taking part in the Disney Leadership Experience:
- Understand elements of team dynamics; identify key challenges teams face; and develop a strategic plan to address them
- Understand the need for building consensus on a team and an individual’s responsibility in achieving it
- Articulate the value of encouraging and supporting individual strengths and talents on a team
- Share critical environmental elements that a leader must provide for a truly creative team to thrive
- Articulate the pervasive and critical need for clear and precise communication from a leader to their team, as well as the necessity for a 360° communication flow within a team
- Have insights into the nature of confidentiality and the need for a leader to properly identify the level of confidentiality required by various types of information
- Describe discussed leadership styles, give examples, and identify which are closest to their own style
- Develop strategic plan for great leadership and effective team communication
- Identify and apply Disney Key Concepts for Strategic Leadership, Teamwork, and Creative Discontent
- Understand forced perspective and how to use it
- Identify the role of color in shaping mood
- Identify the importance of safety within creativity
- Incorporate physical assets such as restrooms, trash cans, restaurants and shops into the story you are telling
- Explain how Guest flow is impacted by art design
2022-2023 Disney Leadership Experience
Details for the fall program will be updated in April 2022, but feel free to look below to get an idea from last year's program!
- Applications are available now and are due Sunday, September 25. Please click here to apply.
- Fall workshops begin on Wednesday, October 12 and continue weekly through Wednesday, December 7 (no workshop will be held on 11/24) . Workshops are Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Students are required to attend every workshop for its entirety.
- The on-site experience at Walt Disney World will be Monday, January 2, 2023 (departing PVD at 6:05 a.m.) through Saturday, January 7, 2023 (arriving back to PVD at 9:25 p.m.). Students are required to be with the group for the entirety of this experience.
- The estimated program cost per person is $1,750, which includes airfare, transportation in Orlando, 5 nights at Disney's Pop Century Resort, 6-day Disney Park Hopper pass, admission to three Disney Imagination Campus workshops, and a $175 Disney Dining Card. The payment schedule is as follows:
- September 30: Payment #1 ($600)
- October 24: Payment #2 ($600)
- November 10: Payment #3 ($500)
- February 2023: Refunds paid from fundraisers
It is expected that every member of the cohort takes part in fundraising during the fall semester to lessen the costs of the program for everyone.
Two Information Sessions will be held in early fall. Most of the information from those sessions is already here on the website, so it will be reviewed as well as any questions answered. The two Information Sessions are as follows:
- Tuesday, August 30, 6:30 p.m., Admission Presentation Room (May 107)
- Wednesday, September 7, 6:30 p.m., Admission Presentation Room (May 107)