How Halle Bailey, H.E.R., Dominique Thorne And More Gave Disney Dreamers Academy Class Advice To Never Give Up On Dreams
March 28, 2023 at 1:19 am
The 2023 Disney Disney Dreamers Academy (DDA) was one to remember. The annual mentoring program by Walt Disney World Resort brings 100 students from around the country for an immersive career-inspiring weekend at The Most Magical Place on Earth for an immersive career-immersed experience. Halle Bailey, who is starring as Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, served as this year’s ambassador. Last year, she worked as a mentor. She told Blavity how her transition within roles came to be.
“I just got the call, and I’m so grateful to now be an Ambassador for Disney Dreamers Academy,” the five-time Grammy-nominated singer said. “These students are so inspiring to me, always have been. And whenever I leave here, I just feel so refreshed and overjoyed and ready to accomplish more goals.”
The program puts Dreamers in an environment where they can lean on their peers for motivation beyond the four-day experience.
It is what 16-year-old Charlotte, NC native ZaNia Stinson says instantly became one of her favorite parts of DDA.
“It’s been an amazing experience to talk to the other Dreamers to see what they want to do also, because at school, not really a lot of people want to do big things or anything,” she told us.
The aspiring dermatologist was also honored by State Farm at the closing ceremony for her commitment to community service and feeding the homeless. “To come here and see how many people are just like me and want to help the world and help their community just makes me really, really excited and happy,” she said.
Bailey’s work included her sharing personal insights with the students, drawing from her own unique experiences as a singer, actress, producer and a young starlet who has grown up in front of the world’s eyes. But she wasn’t the only celebrity surprise in store for the Dreamers.
H.E.R. made an appearance and held a special 1:1 session with a few participants who are interested in careers in music. The singer, composer, writer, actress and musician even autographed guitars for the Dreamers they received in their session with her. Having experienced the magic of Disney herself, starring as Belle in the recent ABC special Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, she was excited to sprinkle in some words of wisdom for the youngsters.
When asked during a media interview session how the young Dreamers who have various passions should go about pursuing them, she said it’s totally OK to be a jack of all trades.
“It’s important to nurture them all. Some people think like, oh, you got to focus on one thing, or think you have to kind of take it day by day, and figure out the bigger picture,” she said. “I think when I first graduated high school, and I was trying to figure out, “OK, am I going to do music 100%?’ Am I going to go to school and do music?” I knew in my spirit that I had to do this music thing 100%, and put in the 10,000 hours. And it gave me the platform to do other things. So, that’s one way to go about it. But you got to just get to know yourself and see what works for you.”
Hip-hop legend and Oscar winner, Questlove of The Roots, shared similar advice. One of the things that he’s most excited about is that the Dreamers of today have more of a blueprint than he did when he was growing up. Back in his time, he was taught to go to school and focus on something considered more practical, like teaching versus music. But now, he says this generation has more options and examples of what they can achieve. It’s something he hopes continues.
“In my time, the way I grew up, dreaming was treated like a four-letter word. It was silly or a waste of time…But we were raised by a generation that was raised by a generation that was raised by a generation to live in fight-or-flight and to live in survival,” he remembered. “Hopefully, we can [break] that generational curse of not listening to our heart and always hustling and always scheming, trying to survive and struggle, and really just take time now for ourselves to really decide what it is we want to do.”
Disney lovers know the company is for kids of all ages, including adults and elders. But for the students, it was important for them to be surrounded by not just their peers in the program, but also those who have achieved the level of success they aim for and who are of similar ages. And they received just that with nuggets from Stranger Things star Priah Ferguson and Till star Jalyn Hall.
For those interested in careers in the performing arts, it can be difficult to carve out how to get there if you aren’t from a family or environment familiar with the business. But Hall says there’s beauty in the process.
“When I started, it was just me and my mother, and it was just us on this road that we knew nothing about because nobody in our family has ever done this before,” he said. “But the fact that they know exactly what they want to do at this young age, literally the same story for me, it’s really empowering and inspiring.”
Ferguson notes that DDA is the perfect stepping stone and confidence builder the selected students need. “I’m always big about kids chasing their dreams, of course. And I like that there’s a strong adult system and a system of mentors who are here to do that for kids,” she said.
For more than a decade now, The Walt Disney Company has been committed to diversifying its resorts, attractions, theme parks and programs. It’s one of the reasons the DDA was birthed, so that the students, more than half of them students of color, have equal opportunities. Many of the students are bonafide scholars who are enrolled in AP courses, on the honor roll and have started their own businesses already. But they continue to face challenges in spaces where they are the only one who looks like them.
Aesha Ash can relate to that complexity. In 2020, she made history as the first Black female member of the permanent faculty in the School of American Ballet’s 86-year history. She told Blavity during an interview that mentorship in any field is a huge recipe for success. But it’s even more important for young people of color to have mentors who look like them so that their experiences are understood without explanation.
“It’s imperative to have somebody in that field who understands that field and knows how to navigate it and has been there and done that,” she explained. “[With] someone who is not of their ethnicity, there are some challenges, [and]here are some barriers there because then, you have that added step of getting them to understand what it’s like to be the only one. Because we do have added challenges.”
Along with the diversity and inclusion efforts made by the company to ensure all Disney followers have the same access and opportunities, their Celebrate Soufully initiative remains in full effect. Park attendees are treated to yearlong culturally specific events that honor African American contributions and culture through music, food, attractions, and beyond. With that, Gospel music and spirituality are emphasized in such itineraries, and DDA was no different.
Aside from the closing ceremony featuring performances and encouragement from The Walls Group and Pastor Mike Jr., both spoke on the balance of following one’s dream while keeping one’s faith beside you.
Members of The Walls Group family dynasty understand the challenges that can come with being gospel artists who also attract attention from the mainstream media who may not share the same faith-based foundation. When asked how their experience has aligned with Dreamers who are determined to stay positive in a world with negative outside influences are running rampant, they said it’s a simple feat.
“Peer pressure is nothing new. We’ve all dealt with peer pressure since we were teenagers,” Ahjah Walls told us. “So when people want you to compromise, just like when you was a kid and you had to learn to say, ‘No.’ It’s like certain things you’re going to have to say ‘No.’ to and that be OK. I think that who you are ethical, it’s just who you are, and if it can be so easily changed, then maybe you are not so solid in who you are. So I feel like maintaining our identity, which is what got us commercial in the first place.”
Her brother Paco agreed, noting, “I think we know how to separate the two worlds. And there’s your ethics, and then there is what you do, and sometimes they intertwine, but it can kind of blur the lines and kind of make everything messy. So what you do is, you don’t place yourself in places that compromise your morals and your ethics. But even in those places, you exist still within yourself in those places so that you don’t have to compromise. You are there to accomplish what you got to accomplish, and then you go back and get back into your room.”
Pastor Mike Jr. just wants to be an example through his actions, and not just by preaching or via his music. “I just want to show them that you can be saved and saucy and still love God and still kick it and still have a good time and still live a blessed life,” he said firmly. “If not, man, this generation, they not believing as we did. Church was forced on us, but sadly, their parents went through so much in the church that now if mom and daddy ain’t believing how that’s going to impact you. So I think we just got to come out of the church and just be really personal with the kids.”
Expanding on Pastor Mike Jr.’s message of parents and one’s village being instrumental in them making good decisions, Princeton Parker is a Media Rep for the company who says without his mother forcing DDA on him, he would have never recognized his potential. He graduated from the program in 2011 and served as a mentor before being hired by the company and working his way up to his current position. He’s proof of what the academy can do for a youngster, especially once you help them fully tap into an area they’ve already shown interest in.
“My mom was heavy on me being in the program. What I love about it is that that was appropriate for that moment, because she was able to communicate why that opportunity already aligned with who I am,” he told us. “So I think [applying] pressure is a bad thing when it’s to push kids in the direction of something that they haven’t already geared themselves toward in their spirit. It doesn’t align with who they are. It’s toward a version that we want for them. When you apply pressure to them in an area where you say, ‘Hey, this aligns with who you are and with who I believe [you are] based upon how you’re already growing. This could propel you.”
Like Parker, 16-year-old Chicago, IL native Nyla Bishop’s mother was the brainchild behind her applying for DDA. The aspiring filmmaker begrudgingly did so and eventually became excited about the experience as the countdown inched closer. She too has dreams of working within The Walt Disney Company.
“I want to create documentaries,” she gushed in our interview. “I think showcasing more of the behind-the-scenes of the people who put it all together here at the theme parks. Specifically, I would love to do a documentary about how the cast members get ready for the shows that they do every night. That’d be fun.”
While Bishop wants to showcase what the parks are like from behind the camera, 18-year-old Orlando, FL native Noah Spinelli wants to work with the people.
” I’m a big animal guy,” he said, noting his dream of being an animal keeper. “I’m probably going to hit the Animal Kingdom theme park to learn more about potentially working behind the scenes of the animal exhibits.”
All of the celebrities who participated in this year’s event walked away more motivated because of the Dreamers. MCU staple Dominique Thorne couldn’t shake her excitement after hearing from the teens. “Being able to sit in this room and see these kids who are so excited and so passionate and so determined to be the best that they can be. Seeing so many people really step up and rise to the challenge of being all that they are has been one of the most humbling experiences of late,” she said.
And as the weekend came to a close, it was black-ish alum Marsai Martin who gave a powerful tidbit about overcoming fears through the process. At just 18 years old now, she became the youngest in Hollywood to EP her film, Little, through her own production company. Like Ash, she knows many of the Dreamers will be the firsts within their lanes to have similar success, and she wants them to embrace it all.
“It’s always great to be the first. It’s always great to be seen in that way. As long as you are seen, and you feel good, and you feel happy, and that’s your passion, people are always going to look at you because you’re doing what you love, and it may look a little different, but you’re still doing what you love,” she said. “And I think that is something that is amazing. And don’t let that intimidate you. I would just say keep going, keep pushing, and in the end, it’s going to be history.”