Author Colin Wright said, “It’s not your responsibility to want the life that others want for you.” This quote should be read to all college freshmen who haven’t yet chosen their major. One senior at University of California, Berkeley has created her own major that some find courageous, yet her detractors find reckless. You’re probably wondering what this story has to do with Disney. Well, senior Kristine Sanders is majoring in just that.
I had the opportunity to talk with Kristine who is UC Berkley’s first Disney major, and when I asked her if she was the first person in the world to ever major in Disney she responded, “I don’t know if I’m the first person to major in Disney, I know Savannah College of Art and Design has a theme park architecture major, which is unique for a design college. To be honest, I don’t anyone has ever done specifically Disney though.”
I looked around online, and to my knowledge Kristine Sanders is in fact the first person to focus specifically on Disney as their major. We talked a little about how her dream became a reality. “I grew up in Orange County, California so I was frequently visiting Disneyland when I was young. In 2009, I visited the Blue Sky Cellar at Disney California Adventure, and they began showing conceptual designs for World of Color, and that’s when I realized what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
So Kristine had a dream, but she was still unsure how to translate that dream into something tangible. Looking for a major in college that would allow her to be a Disney Imagineer would be difficult. She said, “A roommate of mine freshman year was an architecture major, and told me to give it a try, and I fell in love with it, but I knew I wasn’t going to do well enough in math or physics, which is generally a big part of architecture.” This left Kristine at a crossroads. She still wanted to pursue her dream of being a Disney Imagineer, but didn’t know what major at UC Berkley would allow her to continue this dream. So during her sophomore year Kristine went to her advisor, “I almost jokingly ask ‘Can I major in Disney?’ Kristine was surprised by her advisor answer which was “Yes, (you can major in Disney) as an independent major you have to put together a graduation plan, a thesis, find a faculty sponsor, and the dean has to approve it, and away you go.”
Kristine is thankful she had the courage to ask her advisor if majoring in Disney was even a possibility. She said, “I think I am the most fortune person at Cal. How many people get to major in what they actually love? A lot of college students feel pigeonholed in graduating with something they don’t want to major in.”
While she has a major she loves, it isn’t all fun and games. Just like any other student Kristine has to take classes that fulfill her graduation plan. There is a lot more to majoring in Disney then you might think Sanders explains, “It’s more than the fact that I love the Disney theme parks, there is a legitimate methodology, and entire science behind what I am doing.”
I’m jealous of Kristine’s bravery. She is following her passion, and won’t let her detractors take that away from her. She says, “I knew since I was a kid that I was going to work for Disney, it was just a matter of how to get there.”
Side note: Thank you to Michelle Leung from The Daily Californian who wrote Happiest student on earth: UC Berkeley’s first Disney major. You can find her story on Kristine Sanders’s HERE.
