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Disney Project Brings in Arizona State University Students for Mickey’s 100th Anniversary
It started with a mysterious email.
“It was like a cryptic, too-good-to-be-true kind of email, like, ‘Hey, are you available during these dates to go to an undisclosed location? Fully paid for? Are you in?’” recalls NinaPearl Hamel, an industrial design major at Arizona State University (ASU).
After a few more vague emails, 20 hand-picked ASU students met on a pre-departure Zoom call. That is when the ultimate surprise was revealed: they were going to work with Disney.
“And that’s when they officially announced who the partner was. And as you can imagine, we were all really thrilled because none of us knew that it was Disney,” Hamel said. “It was one of those ‘pinch me’ moments because I grew up with Disney.”
Related – Disney Reveals Mickey Mouse 100th Anniversary and Frozen Expansion as Key Business Pillars
On May 11, at 4:30 in the morning, the students gathered at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix before being whisked away to California. Their mission? A four-day, intense, top-secret project collaborating on the upcoming 100th anniversary of Mickey Mouse in 2028.
The exclusive opportunity was part of a four-day Impact Studio, created by the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU. While past studios focused on health and sports, the institute wanted a creative direction this time. The multidisciplinary group consisted of 12 students from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and eight from various other majors across ASU.
The students spent two unforgettable days split between Disney Studios in Burbank and the Disney Creative Campus in Glendale. They toured the legendary Disney archives, caught a special presentation on the history of Mickey Mouse, and collaborated directly with the Disney Consumer Products team.
“It was like going in a time machine and traveling to all the Mickey decades,” Hamel shared. “He’s been around since 1928, and getting to see the original Mickey, the first one that was ever drawn by Walt himself, was such a special opportunity. We also got to hold Walt Disney’s Oscar, which was really fun.”
The students also got to connect with successful ASU alumni and faculty, including Tracy Thurman—an ASU industrial design graduate who now serves as the Vice President of Product Design at Disney Parks, Experiences and Products—and Peter Murrieta, a TV producer and former showrunner for the Disney Channel hit Wizards of Waverly Place.
After brainstorming, the students broke into teams to prototype ideas and deliver preliminary pitches directly to Disney executives. They then returned to the ASU campus, refined their projects based on real-time feedback, and delivered a final presentation via Zoom on May 22.
The Disney executives were eager to see what the next generation had in store.
“Disney executives were intrigued to hear what this generation thinks,” said Jennifer Janicki, director of special initiatives in the Herberger Institute. “They are actively engaged with all generations but they really want to know what Generation Alpha and Generation Z are interested in.”
While it’s not yet known if Disney will officially greenlight the students’ proposals, the real-world experience has already left a massive impact on the participants.
Scarlett Chavez, a project management major, described the experience as “fast-moving, exciting and unexpected.”
“A lot of it was really positive feedback. Nobody was shooting down ideas,” Chavez said. “They were very big on, ‘We don’t want to give you guys any constraints. We want you to imagine anything that comes to mind for this specific objective.’ They want you to open your mind to the impossible. They want you to dream big.”
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