For my role in Food & Beverage, I worked in Festivals at Disney’s EPCOT. Specifically, I worked at the Food & Wine Festival from July to November, and helped with the operations of the food booths as a frontline cast member. My day-to-day work involved taking orders on registers, filling food and drink orders, and expediting the requests. I worked with hundreds of other cast members and had to familiarize myself with menus of over 30 different food booths in order to best serve the guests. It was a physically demanding role at times, but I made sure to keep a positive mindset and, overall, it was fulfilling to take part in such a large-scale event at a park.

After the festival ended in November, I was moved to Attractions, where I was placed at Journey Into Imagination With Figment at EPCOT. I worked with a much smaller team at the ride, something I was grateful for, as I established meaningful relationships with my fellow cast members. I had a much more rigorous training than I had for Festivals and passed a detailed examination in order to work at the attraction. I was proud of myself for being capable of operating a ride safely and efficiently, and quickly learned the flow of work as the holidays approached. While in this role, I had to problem solve and handle conflicts each day; this furthered my experience and I gained vital interpersonal skills that can be applied to roles like film production. Working as a team is essential at an attraction and, during certain situations, I stepped up as a leader to make group decisions and uphold the values of the company. I not only grew as an individual, but I have developed more confidence in quickly learning new tasks and ideas through participating in the Disney College Program.