Up until that moment when the Fouches—a regular family of four from the Midwest—walked on stage to be crowned Disney’s newest additions to the “Royal Family,” Carver had been consumed with the Cinderella Suite design project. It was the type of once-in-a-lifetime project Carver and other alumni of UC’s DAAP program train so diligently for.

Carver recalls that when she began her career, Disney Imagineering recruited only from UC because of the caliber of the program. “At that time, architects and interior designers were recruited only from UC,” Carver recalls. “It was the very strong curriculum that made the difference. Today, Cincinnati is still graduating the best. Even though the competitive set of schools has grown since I was a student, Disney still employs many UC alumni because they are so well-trained. And we bring them in on their co-ops, so we get to see their work before they are hired.”

In addition to raising two successful children and running a private fine arts school for young people, Carver has kept intensely busy with her work for the “Most Magical Place on Earth.” While her travel is limited, she did accept an invitation from one of her 2008 UC interns at Disney to return to her alma mater and give a lecture to DAAP students.

Carver’s return to campus found her in awe. “The whole campus had changed since my time there, and it was gorgeous. The architecture, the growth—it’s all amazing, all exciting.”

It was during that lecture that Karianne Percel (DAAP ’10) heard Carver speak of the intense creativity that Disney requires, the high level of team interaction, and the thorough investment in resources the company is willing to make. Percel dedicated herself to pursuing a co-op at Disney and was hired to be a student intern in 2008 and a post-graduate intern in 2010 before being hired full-time. Since hired, she has worked on rehabbing special interior spaces that fire the imagination through their use of special finishes, custom fabrications, and unique compositions.

Percel feels she is living her dream job each day, particularly because she has a tenured mentor in Carver and three other UC alumni working on her team of ten.

Carver and Percel knew hard work and dedication—skills they honed while at DAAP—would help make them successful. What they didn’t know as UC students is that their design careers would help worldwide icon Disney bring the magic to life for countless numbers of children and their families from around the globe.

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