Thinking back, one of the greatest experiences I had during the program was taking the classes Creativity and Innovation and Organizational Leadership. I learned a lot about myself as a team member, a leader, and as a learner overall. I also worked with a diverse group of people. There were classmates who went along with everything, classmates who did not do any work at all, and teammates who tried to take control for every project.
For my Creativity and Innovation class, my team members changed throughout the semester. Many students dropped the class and so my team dwindled down to only three by the end. For our final project, we had to present a new store concept to the class. While my team had three members left, there were some “teams” that only had one! I’ve learned that you always have to be prepared to take on big responsibilities alone, even if someone is supposed to help you along the way.
To conclude the class, our teacher Ellen had us commit to doing something creative after the class ended. I’ve made a commitment to continue writing in my creative journal 4-5 times every week. Making that commitment pushes me to go out and actually do something every week and through that journal, I’ve actually learned a lot about myself. I want to continue to know myself better.
My Organizational Leadership class was also very insightful and I’m so happy I had the teammates I had. These were the most harmonious group of girls I’ve ever worked with. If we ever disagreed on something, we were quick to come to a consensus. We worked very well together and when we parted ways, we all agreed that this was the best team we’ve ever had. We were also the only team that maintained the same number of team members from the beginning of the semester!
Organizational Leadership Team
All in all, I loved my Disney classes. If I had extended or if I ever participate in another Disney College Program, I would definitely sign up for another class. I’ve also made wonderful friends in class and learned so much from my classmates!
I was also grateful for my team members too. Only a handful of people in my human resources class were taking it just for fun. In my group, 3/6 were actually in it for the credit, (Allison, Alexandra and I). Everyone else could have dropped the class or could have left us hanging but they all pulled through and did their share so we didn’t have any problems. I learned things about the law that I would have never knew about if I hadn’t taken this course. I think if I extended, I would take the heritage class!
It’s wonderful that you had such great team members! I think working together on projects and papers can definitely help friendships form and also encourages learning from one another. I think if I were to participate in this program again, I would consider taking the Human Resources class or the heritage one as well!
Glad you learned so much from these classes that Disney offer, it’s a very important component of the Disney College Program. I am planning to take Organizational Leadership as well, and I love team work so hopefully I’ll do great in my projects.