Tales of a Disney College Program Hopeful -- Vlog #25

That's all for now! Until next time, have a magical day!

Savings Update, Vlogs, and Crunch Time

(26) Days until check in
(22) Days until I leave for Orlando
(17) Days until Charlie St. Cloud
(9) Days until Ramona & Beezus
Psych premieres TONIGHT!

 Alright guys, it's time for another savings update. Today I added $71.01 to my Disney savings. So here is my new total:   

 $373.76

I've worked four extra hours this week so my paycheck should be around $240 next week which will mean I'll get to put $201 into my savings. So that will help a lot.

In other news, I still don't have a car. The insurance guy is not taking my dad's calls, apparently. So we can't buy a car until we talk to him and get our money.

I've only accomplished one thing on my "Top 5 things to do before I pack list", and I realized last night that I need to make it a Top 6 list. I need to add "Print Direct Deposit form" to the list.

Mom is also planning a send off party for me on July 31st. That should be a good time.

We're in crunch time now here, folks. The stress is starting to get to me (especially with all the drama of buying a car). I have to finish my top 6 list, I would also like to buy a few more things that I need, I've got to start trying to pack (I don't even know where to begin). Like a lot of other people I'm beginning to feel like I'm behind on everything even though I've been preparing for this since February.

Expect a new vlog this weekend sometime about the classes I want to take in Disney. If it doesn't come this weekend then look for it early next week. I should start my packing vlog in a couple of weeks. It might take a while as I plan to spread out my packing so I'm not doing it all at one time.

But that's all for today!

Until next time, have a magical day!

Savings Update!

(40) Days until check in
(36) Days until I leave for Orlando
(32) Days until Charlie St. Cloud
(24) Days until Ramona & Beezus
(15) Days until Psych 

Guess what? I'm officially completely ready to go to Disney! I was waiting for the school to register me for my 6 semester hours I need. That was done last week. So, now I'm finally ready to go!

What I'm not ready to do is come back.

I still need an apartment in Boone for the spring semester. I'll be apartment hunting next week as I have three days off. So, let's hope I have that nearly done this time next week. I also have to get my car fixed. Dad's supposed to take care of it, but he hasn't yet.

Also, last week the magazine mailed out another issue, and guess who's name was in it? MINE! I was credited as a "Marketing Intern", how awesome is that?

And now for the savings update:

Credit: 434.59
Savings: 242.75

I almost have enough to pay off the balance on my credit card! YAY! I can not wait until I've got that thing paid off.

That's all for today! Until next time, have a magical day!

Savings Update! :)

(54) days till Check in.
(50) days till I leave for Orlando
(4) days till Jonas LA
(2) days till Toy Story 3

Okay, so I'm still not registered for classes at ASU. They have two courses that are specifically intended for College Program Participants.We can be enrolled in them at ASU while in Disney and basically it's a way to have 6 semester hours of credit for doing the program. You're registered for two classes at App and then take 2 classes while you're at Disney so that you can earn whatever credits you need (for insurance purposes or, like me, to keep your loan grace period from starting). I talked to Sharon about registering for them and she told me to contact someone named Heidi so I could be added to the list. I contacted Heidi, and then contacted Sharon again (just in case).

That was the third week in May. Now it's June 16th and I'm still not registered. Sharon said it should have been done by the first week in June, and it still hasn't been done. I e-mailed her yesterday and I still haven't heard anything from her.

But I suspect I'll be hearing from her soon. Hopefully I'll have this taken care of in the next couple of weeks.

Alright, I got a paycheck on Monday. Time to update my savings totals.

Credit: $214.59
Savings: $122.75

So, still not stellar, but better than before. I also changed my percentages. Here are the new ones:

Credit: 55%
Savings: 30%
Me: 15%

Also! On an awesome random note, two of my friends brought me some awesome High School Musical cupcakes! Check them out! (There were 5, but I already ate the Troy cupcake. He was yummy.) ;)

That's all for now!

Until next time, have a magical day!

[INFOPOST]Things to Think About: Career Development (a.k.a. -- The NEW Disney Plan)

Sorry for the long title, but this is half a personal update post and half an info post. Enjoy!

So, if you saw my post a few days ago then you read about my tiny drama with Disney and my loans and enrollment. Well, it's all fixed now. I went to see Sharon at Career Development yesterday, and if you've been following my blog from the beginning then you know that Sharon is a LIFE SAVER. She works directly with Wayne, our campus recruiter, and the campus reps to help set everything up for Disney. She basically keeps my school's relationship with Disney alive and well. Anyone at AppState who is interested in applying for the program should make an appointment with her. She's very understanding of your concerns and will help you find a way to ease them.

Also, I urge anyone at any school to track down the Career Development representative at your school that works with Disney. Not all schools have them, but most do. It's the smartest decision you'll make. How would you go about finding this person you ask? Well, I'll tell you how I tracked down Sharon.

I went to the presentation schedule on the college program site, and found my school. To the very right of my school's listing was Sharon's name and her school assigned e-mail. I e-mailed her and told her I was going to be applying for the program and asked what she suggested I do before I applied. She responded back and then said that I could call and make an appointment with her if I wanted to discuss these things in person. So, I did. I have met with her a total of three times now, and each time I have learned something new about this process.

Your school's Career Development office can be VERY helpful to you so USE it! You won't regret it.

Back to the main point of this post though, Sharon helped my figure out my enrollment situation. I will now get elective credit for two classes while I'm at Disney which will keep my Grace Period from activating. This means that the exploration series class I planned to take is out the window, and I will now be taking two of Disney Collegiate level courses. I have a list of four that's ranked in favor of the two I want to take the most. I have two back ups in case the ones I want fill up before I check in.

The two classes that I'm hoping to take are:

1) Marketing You
2) Creativity and Innovation

My back ups are Corporate Communication and Organizational Leadership (At least I think that's what their called, lol.)

I'm in the middle of exams right now so I'll probably be posting a lot more as a means of procrastinating and distracting myself (it's what I'm doing right now.) I'll be done with exams on May 4th (May the 4th be with you: International Star Wars Facebook Status Day) and I'll be moving home on the 5th after a long day of packing and cleaning my apartment.

So far I've got no updates to give you on the job front, but Sharon gave me a great idea. If I can't get a steady job I could always babysit. Extremely flexible hours, and money to make credit card payments plus I have TONS of experience to back it up. Also, my mom's a hair stylist with rich clients who might have kids or grandkids that need watching so I could give her a flier to put up at her station. And I think there's a website where people who want to babysit can put up a listing. I can't remember what it's called though. If anyone out there knows please feel free to comment and tell me.

Well, that's all for today! Until next time, have a magical day!

Small Disney Road Block...

So, you know how I mentioned the loan "Grace Period" in my last post?

Well, turns out that "Grace Period" is causing complications.

Until now my plan has been to take one exploration series class while at Disney. I'm not getting credit with my department, and I didn't need it for my insurance so I wasn't worried about classes at all. This plan has been scrapped.

I have loans, and the deal with loans is that you get a 6 month grace period after you leave school before you have to start paying them back. I'm going to be at Disney for 5 months. It's one month short of 6 but I do NOT want to risk anything. So my financial aid counselor suggested I be enrolled for 6 semester hours. My Grace Period wouldn't start and I wouldn't even have to worry about it. So, I e-mailed Sharon at Career Development and asked how I could get 6 semester hours, and she said it was a relatively easy fix.

All I needed to do was e-mail a specific person at the school of Business about being enrolled in the "Dummy" courses within the school of Business. These are courses with the school of Business label that act as place holders for credit and classes down at Disney. Sharon said that this meant I would now need to take TWO of Disney's collegiate courses to coincide with these "Dummy" classes.

I then realized that I had already submitted my "Intent Not to Return" form to the Registrar so I asked Sharon what I should do about that, and she said all I had to do was call them and request to have that form cancelled. So I did that, and was told they would contact everyone on campus and tell them I changed my mind about not being enrolled at school while at Disney. So then I sent the woman at the school of business an e-mail asking to be enrolled in those two Business courses.

Hopefully that will solve my problem. I'm meeting with Sharon tomorrow to discuss classes. I have a few questions for her about which ones I can take and which ones she suggests. After reviewing the list I think I know which ones I want to take, but like I said I have a few questions for Sharon first.

So there's my small Disney road block. It looks as though it's fixed. Cross your fingers that no more complications pop up.

Until next time, have a magical day!

The "Non-Costumed" Disney Look

Disney Look Professional Style by angellwings featuring Old Navy

Ever since I got into the program my mom and I have been looking around for "professional" clothing. I've discovered that the BEST place to find this is Ann Taylor or Ann Taylor Loft. But Old Navy has appropriate and affordable skirts and trousers as well. I looked around Maurice's, but sadly only found one thing that looked both cute and professional.

The outfits you see above are my inspiration and the types of things that I'm looking for. I've found a few things that are similar so far, but I'm going to keep looking over the summer.

But for those of you having trouble finding clothes for Traditions or for your classes, I highly suggest visiting Ann Taylor or the Ann Taylor Loft. You'll definitely find a few things there.

Until next time, have a magical day!