Student earns back-to-back internships with Walt Disney World and Nickelodeon

As a remote employee working an internship from home in Indianapolis this summer, Jena Szalai is never far from a special keepsake: a giant gold plastic cup in the shape of SpongeBob SquarePants’ pineapple house, famous from the opening line of the cartoon’s offbeat theme song: “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants!”

Jena Szalai after the "Final Bow," a ceremony for Disney College Program graduates. Szalai earned a Daisy Diploma and Mouseters Certificate in career development from the program. Photo courtesy Jena Szalai

But the quirky memento isn’t a mere souvenir; it’s a gift from her summer employer: Nickelodeon’s Location-Based Experiences Team under Paramount Global. Szalai received it in a gift package from the legendary media company during a visit to their offices in Florida.

A rising senior in the media arts and science program at the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering in Indianapolis, Szalai is a lifelong fan of animation, focusing her studies at IU Indianapolis on digital storytelling, video, 3D modeling and design. The opportunity to contribute to a company that played an important role in her childhood is a dream come true, she said.

“I’ve always loved hand-drawn animation and animation in general,” said Szalai, whose role this summer involves developing training materials for Team Nick Training. “I’m so passionate about Paramount, Nickelodeon and their intellectual properties. It’s so cool being able to work for them in any capacity. Everyone I’ve encountered has been stellar.”

And Nickelodeon isn’t the only creator of cherished childhood memories for which she’s worked this year. Over the spring, Szalai also interned at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, through the Disney College Program. Students in the internship program, operated by the Disney Programs division of The Walt Disney Company, work and live at the resort while participating in educational sessions on location.

As a participant in the program, Szalai worked in merchandising at World of Disney in Disney Springs and engaged in learning opportunities such as workshops, networking activities and speaker events, earning both a Daisy Diploma and Mouseters Certificate in career development. Some of the programs’ guest speakers included Disney’s vice president of talent acquisition and members of the Walt Disney World Ambassador Team and the Executive Communications team.

“A common thread to their advice was the idea that career paths are not linear; most successful people will tell you their career paths were not a straight line,” Szalai said. “They reminded us to step outside the box, to get out of our comfort zone and not get frustrated — and that getting out of your comfort zone is where you discover new opportunities.”

These lectures and workshops took place at Apprentice Hall, a part of Flamingo Crossings Village, the apartment complex at the resort that houses thousands of participants in the College Program. As a commuter student who has been living with her family in Indianapolis, Szalai said the internship was also her first experience living on her own.

“It was really a college experience in many ways: getting away from home, living with other students in a dorm-like setting,” she said. “This past year for me has really been about stepping out of my comfort zone; it’s been scary but also exciting. It was an opportunity that I knew I couldn’t pass up.”

In both cases, Szalai’s initiative forged the path to her internships. Early in her freshman year, she signed up for the Disney College Program’s email list, and she jumped at the chance to apply when she received a notice about open spots last year. She traces the Nickelodeon opportunity to a decision to register for a free lecture series on LinkedIn called the Paramount Consumer Products and Experiences Learning Series. Szalai would regularly log into the sessions from her car after finishing up the day as a guest experience associate at Newfields.

“I would get off work and run out to the car to do these little workshops,” she said. “What I didn’t know at the time is that they would encourage everyone who participated to apply for summer internships.”

But Szalai said she thinks that using LinkedIn to request informational interviews with several workshop panelists probably played the biggest role in her success.

Szalai said the courage to reach out was inspired in part by a course she had recently taken on career preparation taught by Kevin Lema, assistant program director of undergraduate career services at the IU Luddy School in Indianapolis. In fact, she credits a number of IU Indianapolis mentors with inspiring her to pursue her dreams, including Luddy School faculty members David Perry, Mathew Powers and Zeb Wood. Another was Lexa Muehlbauer, a communications specialist in the Division of Student Affairs at IU Indianapolis, who supervised Szalai when she was the office’s content and social media intern in fall 2023.

“Professor Powers really helped empower me to be more confident and use my love of media, comics and storytelling to really get into projects with an optimistic, excited mindset,” she said. “And my animation professor, Professor Perry, was really who made me realize that just because I’m from the Midwest and had never been to California or Florida, that doesn’t mean I can’t work for companies like Nickelodeon. They really encouraged me to take a leap.”

After Szalai wraps up her internship this summer, she said she is looking forward to completing her senior year and then exploring career opportunities in areas such as social media, design, digital marketing or communications. She said her experiences in and out of the classroom at IU Indianapolis have set her up for success to keep “dreaming big.”