During spring at OHS, clubs and classes provide students with the opportunity to attend a sanctioned trip to Disneyland. Though this magical land in California is a popular vacation spot, it doubles as the location where many students can advance their learning in a new environment.
Though some misconceptions abound about what students do while they are visiting Disneyland, they are being treated to valuable experiences like no other. Students’ opportunities at Disneyland are in no way a waste of educational time, whether through workshops or even their own performances.
“I’m a part of wind ensemble and we go to Disney to perform at an area festival. We go there, we perform some of our pieces down in California and then we spend the rest of the day at the park and then the whole next day at the park as well,” said Liam Tosh, junior.
Aside from the performing arts, students also go to Disney to build and develop existing skills.
“I’m part of STUGO and the first day we had a workshop for STUGO and it’s basically where we learn about leadership. We would go with a guide and they would take us through the park and show us different ways how we could be a better leader and that was a three-hour class,” said Alice Cannon, junior.
Depending on what program students are a part of, they may also get the rare opportunity to learn behind-the-scenes tidbits that revolve around the design elements in Disney.
“I’m in FCCLA [Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America], and in Disneyland, we got to go to Imagination Campus at Disneyland and they kind of just took us to the backroads of Disney. We got to go into the backrooms and they showed us how things are engineered, why they use certain designs, and why they use certain colors,” said Brooklynn Bond, sophomore.
Students can learn valuable information from these Disney trips, which they can apply back to their own lives and their classes when they return to OHS.
“I think it’s really important because it kind of brings together all the interior design aspects into one big trip and [I] understood all of it. I feel like we have a lot of units but this really helped bring it all together into one and show how it’s used in real life,” Bond said.
Another interesting opportunity for students on Disney trips is specialized workshops that go hand in hand with their classes at OHS.
“At Disney, we do a Broadway workshop in the park. We have the day to explore the park and go on rides but then as a whole theater group, we take about an hour or two to do a Broadway workshop with the Disney workers,” said Rowan Balma, junior.
Just because students are away at Disney does not mean education stops. Instead, students are hard at work.
“In choir and theater, there are some expectations since it is a graded thing. Especially in theater, we have a checklist where we have to go see a show or go meet a certain character and do little checkpoints for our trip,” Balma said.
Another experience and factor in students going to Disneyland is to compete in an event they spend extensive time preparing for.
“The main reason we go there is, we do a competition or a festival for our Varsity level choirs, Harmonics and Honor Choir. We prepare a competition set all year that we take to California and we perform it for judges and we get a score,” Balma said.
Beyond the graded expectations and hard work students put into their time at Disney, is a time for them to bond and grow stronger as a team.
“I think the best part is just getting to have so much fun and being surrounded by all these people that you’re so close to. You get to get even closer to them and experience something that you wouldn’t get to do otherwise like we wouldn’t be going to Disney together if we weren’t all in choir together, so it’s just an experience that we wouldn’t have otherwise,” Balma said.
