ASU students collaborate with Disney on secret project for Mickey Mouse’s 100th birthday

Mickey Mouse is turning 100 in 2028, and Disney is working on a special birthday project with the help of Arizona State University students.

NinaPearl Hamel is an industrial design major at ASU heading into her senior year. She woke up to find a cryptic email on morning saying she was invited to participate in a top-secret project.

“It was like, ‘Hey, Nina, are you free between these dates to go to an undisclosed location, to work with an undisclosed partner, fully paid for? Are you in?’ And it sounded too good to be true. I genuinely thought it was like a scam email or something,” she told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Hamel  and other students then gathered on a zoom call where it was revealed that they would have the chance to fly to Southern California in May to work in secret on Disney project.

“It genuinely felt like a childhood dream was coming true,” Hamel said.

20 ASU students worked on ways to celebrate Mickey Mouse’s 100th birthday

Twenty students were selected from majors related to design, engineering, business or marketing. The group was then split up into four teams to plan and pitch an idea to Disney executives involving a celebration for Mickey’s birthday.

The details of the project cannot be released yet, but Hamel said the group toured the studio’s archives, getting a glimpse of the first hand-drawn Mickey Mouse and behind-the-scenes details of the studios’ movies.

“It’s just so fun getting to work with those kinds of people that are just so driven, so motivated, and it really felt like this project with no limits. It’s like, ‘How creative can we be? How can we come up with the best, most wild ideas and then how can we pitch it in a real-world setting?’ I think that’s what really made this project stand out,” she said.

The program is called the Impact Studio and was designed by the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU to get students immersed in real-world experiences before graduation.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

Subscribe to the KTAR Eyes on Education newsletter to get our top education stories, exclusive guest interviews and more to your email inbox.

Related

Arizona’s Democratic superintendent nominee wants public schools to get stockpiled ESA fundsAZ Political Podcast: Former math teacher Teresa Leyba Ruiz hopes numbers add up in NovemberPeoria Unified board member questions quality of training, alleges sex scandal cover-upPeoria Unified governing board members deny accusations surrounding teacher sex caseArizona judge rejects Republican effort to block ESA reform ballot initiative; appeal plannedMore school closures could be coming in the West Valley