Description

Troy and Gabriella sail through their fabulous senior year of high school with the realization that all good things come to an end and very soon they will be separated from their friends and the life they love. They decide to stage the grand finale of musicals to say farewell to their high school careers.

One hundred teens from across the United States with the potential for greatness and the courage to dream will be tapped for the Dreamers Academy weekend Jan. 17-20, during the heart of Disney’s “Year of a Million Dreams” celebration.

“This is about taking youth with potential and opening doors for them — helping them to realize their dreams,” said Xiomara Wiley, vice president of multicultural marketing, Disney Parks and Resorts. “And what a place to do it! At 40 square miles, Walt Disney World is the world’s largest creative classroom designed to inspire people. These young people will have unprecedented access to the magic behind the magic.”

Disney’s Dreamers Academy sessions will include interactive workshops, motivational talks with sports and entertainment celebrities, and discussions led by Disney cast members and executives sharing their blueprint for success. Workshop topics will feature everything from business to architecture/engineering, animation to set design, show production to culinary arts, to learning the business behind sports. And there’ll be time to have some fun in the Disney theme parks — to see first hand the results of those “Disney dreamers.”

Harvey said Disney’s Dreamers Academy “is very important to me because it gets to the heart of what my foundation is all about. It’s about the education of our young people who are oftentimes slighted and don’t have the chance to be exposed to a variety of job skills and job sets and meet with people in the fields they’re interested in. We want to give our young achievers the tools to become overachievers — to take their dreams stratospheric.”

Students from around the country can be nominated to participate. The lucky participants — who must be enrolled in high school — will be selected from among young dreamers nominated by their parents, legal guardians, their school, church, social organization, youth program — or even themselves. Nomination forms and more details about Disney’s Dreamers Academy with Steve Harvey can be found on www.steveharvey.com/disneysdreamersacademy.

A select panel of judges including Steve Harvey, key African American community leaders and Disney representatives will choose the 100 finalists — students who show promise but may need a little motivation and who share one common trait: the power to dream.

“We believe this program will have special appeal for African American high-schoolers, and working with Steve Harvey gives us a great opportunity to get this message to them,” adds Wiley.

* The Story of Walt Disney by Diane Disney Miller & Pete Martin (Holt, 1957)

* The Disney Version by Richard Schickel (Simon & Schuster, 1968, 1985, 1997)

* Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1976; Hyperion, 1994)

* The Man Behind the Magic; the Story of Walt Disney by Katherine & Richard Greene (Viking, 1991, 1998)

* Walt Disney: His Life in Pictures edited by Russell Schroeder (Disney Press, 1996)

* Walt Disney’s Railroad Story by Michael Broggie (Pentrex, 1997)

* The Magic Kingdom; Walt Disney and the American Way of Life by Steven Watts (H. Mifflin, 1997; 2001 pbk)

* Building a Company; Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire by Bob Thomas (Hyperion, 1998)

* Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney by Howard Green & Amy Boothe Green (Hyperion, 1999)

* The Quotable Walt Disney compiled by Dave Smith (Disney Editions, 2001)

* Discovering Walt by Jean-Pierre Isbouts (Disney Editions, 2001)

* Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney by Katherine & Richard Greene (Disney Editions, 2001)

* Walt Disney’s Missouri by Brian Burnes, et al (Kansas City Star Books, 2002)