Disney education program adding schools

Fullerton College, Cal State to offer in-person classes

The $150 million Disney Aspire program, which has allowed thousands of Disneyland employees to get a free college education while taking courses online, now offers something new: inperson classes.

Disneyland has added Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College to its network of schools in the program.

Disney Aspire covers 100% of tuition, fees and books at network schools for full-time and parttime hourly Disneyland employees, who have been asking for in-class education with face-toface interaction with professors and classmates in an on-campus setting. Now they can take in-person classes at the newly added schools.

Disney Aspire covers the cost of 120 college degrees at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels and 20 certificates in learning and trade programs.

Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College bring nearly 70 new degree and certificate programs to Disney Aspire.

Since the program began in 2018, thousands of Disney employees have enrolled in online programs at schools including the University of Arizona and University of Central Florida.

More than 13,000 employees take part in the program.

Earlier this year, Disney Aspire added its first historically Black college (North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University) and first culinary-focused school (Johnson & Wales University).

Other large corporations have programs similar to Disney Aspire. Papa John’s offers free tuition to Purdue University Global for 20,000 corporate employees.

Starbucks provides full tuition for employees pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University’s online program.