Magic Man
Zach Bailey Turns a College Internship into Disney Career
There’s internships, and then there’s internships.
Zach Bailey ’14 had the latter back in 2012, when he spent a semester as an intern in the Disney College Program. That experience—one that included working with such enter-
tainment icons as George Lucas and J.K. Rowling (yes, that George Lucas and J.K. Rowling)—has launched a “magical” Disney career for Bailey since graduating with a business degree from Siena Heights. He is currently a park operations guest service manager with Hollywood Studios.
Bailey said he’s always wanted to work for Disney, and when he came to Siena Heights, he began to explore internship possibilities.
“I literally had no idea how to start that journey,” he said. “It’s an empire, so how do you even start to work for those guys?”
He discovered the Disney College Program, but learned that Siena Heights was not part of the program. Regardless, he drove to a nearby university to see a presentation about the program, and worked for the next year to try to make that happen.
Enter Matt Ripper. SHU’s assistant professor of Business Management worked to rewrite the business program’s internship program to help make that internship possible for Bailey.
