Disneyland Resort partners with Anaheim Union High School District on workforce development program

The Disneyland Resort is contributing $350,000 to the Anaheim Union High School District to support a popular summer internship program.

AUHSD Superintendent Michael B. Matsuda and Lisa Haines, Vice President of Public Affairs, Disneyland Resort.
AUHSD Superintendent Michael Matsuda, left, and Disneyland Resort Vice President of Public Affairs Lisa Haines.

Anaheim’s Innovative Mentoring Experience, or AIME, has provided summer mentoring experiences to nearly 7,000 students through 55 partnering businesses, including Kaiser Permanente, Wells Fargo, Rolls-Royce HTC, Anaheim Public Utilities, Disneyland and Lennar.

Along with promoting college and career skills, officials say AIME emphasizes the five C’s — collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking and character — and offers dual-college credit with Fullerton College. This summer the program plans to add a dual-credit program at Cypress College.

“I am very grateful to the Disneyland Resort for investing in our students and providing them opportunities with corporate mentors who will help them develop their life-long skills to navigate an increasingly challenging future,” AUHSD Superintendent Mike Matsuda said.

AIME was launched in 2014-15 in response to a student petition signed by more than 5,000 students looking to develop soft skills through mentoring experiences. With its Oct. 10 donation, the Disneyland Resort hopes the program can expand to reach an additional 500 students over the next three years.

The Anaheim Union High School District serves approximately 29,000 students and offers more than 20 career technical education pathways at 10 high schools, including engineering, biomedical science, medical careers, finance, construction, hospitality and tourism, and computer science. For more information, visit www.auhsd.us.