Sonoraville alum wins nationwide Disney competition

Zeke Waters and his team of college friends were declared as first place winners after competing against teams from across the country during the 2019 Walt Disney Imaginations Design Competition, which took place last week.

Waters, a 2015 graduate of Sonoraville High School, is currently a senior at Savannah College of Art and Design, where he’s been able to explore his passion for scene entertainment and creative designing. And during his studies, he’s come across the Walt Disney Imaginations Design Competition multiple times.

And after watching some of his older friends enter the competition when he was an underclassman, he and a few of his SCAD friends decided to form a team together and enter into the 2019 competition.

“The Rose of Babylon,” the title of their project, is a botanical experience for people of all ages and a modern reimagining of ancient Babylon, and it’s meant to inspire a rebuilding of Iraq. This interactive exhibit allows guests to experience ancient Middle East and contribute to the spread of resources and new life, according to the Disney press release.

The Imaginations Design Competition was started in 1991 by Imagineering Executive Marty Sklar with the purpose of seeking out and nurturing the next generation of diverse Imagineers, according to a press release from Walt Disney Imagineering. The competition is open to college students across the country, and offers an opportunity for them to design an experience that could potentially be incorporated in future Disney theme parks.