Orlando, FL – The 18th annual Disney Dreamers Academy has officially commenced!
10 Atlanta-area dreamers were among the 100 Disney Dreamers who had the ride of their lives in a magical parade at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
Entering the magical world of Disney, dreamers had fun screaming and shouting “Be 100”, the slogan for the Dreamers Academy. Faces were in awe at seeing familiar faces like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Stitch, Princess Tiana, and more.
The Disney Dreamers Academy is a mentoring program at Walt Disney World Resort that inspires and empowers students from diverse communities to pursue their career dreams, offering a 4-day all-expenses-paid trip to Walt Disney World for selected high school students and their parents or chaperones.
The new class of 100 students is selected from thousands of nationwide applicants for a once-in-a-lifetime mentoring program at Walt Disney World.
Photo by Isaiah Singleton/The Atlanta Voice
The Dreamers and Tyler James Williams from ABC’s hit show “Abbott Elementary,” the Golden Globe-winning actor and the event’s official “DREAMbassador,” were the honorary grand marshals in the Magic Kingdom parade that included popular Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Princess Tiana. After the parade, the students had the opportunity to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom.
The parade kicked off the five-day event. Throughout the event, the students will interact with Williams and other celebrities, business executives, entertainers, educators, and others during fun, interactive career workshops and sessions while also spending time making magical memories in the Disney theme parks.
Some of the Atlanta-area dreamers included Alonnah Copeland from Fayetteville, Owen Osborne from Newnan, Kylan Robinson from Stone Mountain, Chasity Rolland from Locust Grove, Tiyanna Shaheed from Riverdale, Rihana Tape from Stockbridge, Sierra Walker from Snellville, and Ciara Essence Wimbush from Acworth.
After the parade, Williams sat down with the media to talk about the importance of Disney Dreamers. He said as a young actor and witnessing the young dreamers chase their dreams gives a feeling of “familiarity”.
“I remember what it felt like to feel the passion and feeling like it was so far away at times,” he said. “What I want to do here and what I hope this does is it makes it feel a little bit closer for them and that it’s possible and for them to keep going 20-something years later.”
Furthermore, Willams said he knew from a young age he wanted to be an actor starring on Sesame Street, a sort of pipeline of the Disney experience.
He also said it’s a “really beautiful thing” to be a hopeful young person but it’s also challenging because often, the world likes to assume young people don’t know themselves as well as they think.
“I can tell this is a room full of people with really big dreams and I know what it’s like to be a young person with big dreams,” he said.
He also said when you know who you are, what you love, and what kind of person you want to be, you might often feel as though, you must convince people that you mean it.
“The greatest way to do that is to keep showing up, keep bringing who you are, and keep doing what you love, and the world is going to open up for you,” he said. “That’ll be proof enough to know you’re walking in your purpose.”