Disney International Program

The Disney International Program, in two phases

The Disney International Program is a six-month stay in the United States that takes place in two phases: a period of study at an American university, then a paid work placement within the Walt Disney World Resort teams, in Florida. Excelia Business School coordinates this scheme in partnership with Delaware State University and Disney.

The first stage takes place on the campus of Delaware State University, where you take classes in English that lay the foundations of international management before leaving for Florida. This academic phase prepares you for the intensive pace of work that a role within the Walt Disney World Resort teams then requires. Once there, in Orlando, you join these teams for a work placement that takes up most of the stay and combines professional experience with life in shared accommodation, alongside colleagues from all over the world.

This structure sets the programme apart from a simple summer job: it begins with an academic period, supervised by Excelia Business School and its American partner, before the work placement takes over. The programme is thus designed as a complete experience, in which classroom learning comes before practice in the field. It is therefore not a purely recreational experience.

Students who have lived this experience talk about it on video, from their arrival on the campus of Delaware State University to their day-to-day life within the Walt Disney World Resort teams, including what the programme taught them on a personal, professional and academic level. This gives you a way to gauge, before applying, what this journey really involves.

What you do there, and what it gives you

Participants hold two different roles within the park's teams and follow online courses delivered by an American university at the same time. These courses extend the academic supervision provided by Excelia Business School throughout the work placement.

Assignments are spread across several job families: guest relations, catering, retail, attractions and operations. From one role to the next, you are in constant contact with visitors from all over the world, at a demanding pace that leaves little room for approximation. It is this daily contact that builds solid professional English, real ease in customer relations and the ability to work in a multicultural environment: skills that are built on the ground, role after role, rather than in a classroom.

Access to the Disney International Program depends on the programme you are following, as each course sets its own conditions for participation. The Bachelor in Business and the Master in Management (Programme Grande École) give access to it at certain points in the course, and their programme leaders set out the terms of recognition; for any other programme, your programme's page tells you whether this scheme is part of it.

To picture what lies ahead before you apply, our students' testimonials tell you what this dual experience changes in a course, beyond what a programme page can describe. If you are still hesitating between several programmes that give access to it, our brochure request lets you receive the full details of the programmes concerned, so you can compare at what point in the course this experience fits best with your plans.

Applying: conditions and selection

Selection takes place in several stages:

• an application file
• an interview
• an English level assessment

The programme is open to participants who are of legal age and are applying from their programme at Excelia Business School.

The application file traces your background and motivations, before an interview assesses your plans and your ability to live for several months away from your home campus, in a demanding professional environment. The level of English expected matches what a day-to-day English-speaking work environment requires. It is achievable with suitable preparation and does not require you to be perfectly bilingual. The assessment covers your spoken fluency as much as your comprehension, since most of the stay is lived in English, both in class and in contact with the park's visitors.

Once selected, departure also involves the usual steps for a stay of several months in the United States, starting with the visa, whose conditions depend on your nationality and are set out during the application process.

This selection process applies in the same way to all candidates; it is then the programme you follow at Excelia Business School that determines access to the scheme, as set out on your programme's page.

The Disney International Program is just one of the ways to experience the international dimension at Excelia Business School: you can discover our other forms of international mobility, or choose academic expatriation if you prefer a full semester of academic immersion.