The American Indian College Fund (the College Fund) has been in partnership with Disney for more than 10 years and, for the past five, they have worked together to develop a stronger capacity to provide useful programming for the College Fund’s scholars and their professional development and growth.

Through this partnership, the College Fund has provided on-campus training programs like workshops on developing skills in script writing and a series of webinars to highlight actionable steps to grow individual development and master a variety of skill sets through Disney’s experiential programs.

“In working with Native scholars, we are often challenged by their capacity to participate in programming that brings them to a site for further personal and professional edification,” explains Jack Soto, Navajo/Cocopah, career readiness and employment, senior program manager with the College Fund.

“So, in partnership, we have been working on developing a framework that could be useful to scholars and demonstrate that some realities need to be met to help fulfill a projected goal of Native scholar participation.”

Disney provides resources to the College Fund to administer the College Fund’s scholarship program called the Future Native Storytellers Program.

Wayne Hampton, senior manager of Disney campus recruitment, Disney Internships, points out that they wanted to increase the awareness of opportunities at Disney for Native students. 

So, in partnership with the College Fund, a smaller group of scholars was selected to receive some additional enhancements through the Future Native Storytellers Program.

“We focused on a site visit to Disney in Orlando and then met virtually over the year to provide additional support to learn about and grow scholars’ future employment interests,” Soto notes.

“This included some training with the Disney Programs community and workshops on fundamentals, such as resume writing and elevator-pitch development. This small group also was able to connect with Disney’s American Indian affinity group a few times, both virtually and in person.”

During the site visit, the students received an in-person overview of the departments that were related to their majors. In this case, all members of this group were majoring in environmental science and biology, so they were able to network with leaders in those areas to learn about opportunities at Disney and what “a day in the life” of a Disney employee looks like from behind the scenes.

“Our hope was that they would see how opportunities at Disney could potentially help Native scholars with their overall career goals,” Hampton explains, adding that he and Soto have discussed professional development opportunities with Disney for students studying other majors, such as engineering, finance, IT, and hospitality.

“We also hoped it would allow them to see that a company like Disney, which they might not have initially thought of as a career destination, has job opportunities in areas in which they might be interested.”

Adds Soto: “We focused on integrating environmental science scholars into the experiential programming at Disney. The small group of scholars was able to visit select parks and exhibits to learn how their interests—sustainability—can turn into employment at a business site like Disney.”

After this introduction to the theme parks and opportunities for relationship building, scholars were invited to apply for Disney’s summer internship program in areas that could provide some added exploration in their professional development.

Hampton says the site visit enhanced the program’s impact by giving students exposure to the parks, intern housing, staff, leaders, and the local weather, helping them envision themselves working at Disney.

“The goal of the program is to provide Native and Indigenous students with exposure to career opportunities that they may have never considered before,” Hampton says.

“Another goal for those who are selected as interns is to gain valuable skills that they can use whether they pursue a career with Disney post-internship or not.”

Aiyanna Tanyan (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma), a student majoring in Business in Tribal Management at Haskell Indian Nations University, interned at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida this summer. 

Tanyan says, “It exposed me to specific types of resources and networking opportunities that I wouldn’t get anywhere else. All forms of leadership were open to my needs and career goals and asked what Disney could do to help me with my future. 

“I met with various department heads outside of where I worked. Each one made me feel like I belonged to fill a space at Disney, encouraged me in my endeavors, and made a point to let me know that I am always welcome back.”

From the College Fund’s perspective, the program’s main goal is that the partnership works to create better, deeper impact programs that allow for its scholars to find ways to see their personal interests grow into meaningful employment.

“We do not pursue this type of programming with every partner we work with, but we do consider what we believe our scholars are looking for in reference to opportunities to develop personally and professionally,” Soto explains.

“In all cases, programs like this assist us and the partner in exploring pathways of support in connecting to Native people who may have an interest in working for their company or business. … there is such great opportunity in learning how to be supportive to Native scholars and their pursuit for employment.”

Soto explains that the College Fund’s Future Native Storytellers Program is a natural evolution of the relationship with Disney.

“We have been working together at creating something for our scholars to have an actual professional growth experience. I think we have successfully co-developed something with many aspects of an experience encompassing professional exploration, examination, and decision making,” he says of the partnership with Disney.

“Most scholars do not have an opportunity to be in an actual professional environment where the employees share how they get to explore their personal interests, combine it with global research, and turn it into creative outputs. That type of experience is, literally, magical…as well as rare.”  

Adds Hampton: “For Disney, this program provides a new career pathway for Native and Indigenous students as we work to make sure students everywhere have access to opportunities across the Walt Disney Company.”