A group of students from Arizona State University (ASU) went to California for four days in May to work with Disney on a secret project for Mickey’s 100th birthday in 2028.
ASU/Disney Project
According to ASU News, 20 students from different departments were chosen to participate in the secretive four-day collaboration. It was part of the Impact Studio from the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU. Impact Studio was made to help students gain real-world experiences through collaborative practice.
A dozen of the students were from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, while the others were from various departments.
“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?’” NinaPearl Hamel, an industrial design major at Arizona State University, told ASU News. Only later did students find out that the collaboration was with Disney.
On May 11, 2026, the students flew out to California and spent two days at Disney Studios in Burbank and then Disney Creative Campus in Glendale. They toured the Disney archives, learned more about the history of Mickey, and then met with staff from the Disney Consumer Products team.
From there, they spent the final two days cultivating ideas and pitches for execs at Disney. Once they returned to ASU, they further developed the ideas they had in California for one more presentation for the executives on May 22.
Jennifer Janicki, director of special initiatives in the Herberger Institute, told ASU News that they don’t know yet if the executives will move forward with any of the students’ ideas, though they were interested in hearing from them. “They are actively engaged with all generations but they really want to know what Generation Alpha and Generation Z are interested in,” she said.
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