DOWAGIAC — Brianna Perrin’s acceptance by the Disney College Program means a paid internship during fall semester at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort.

The Stevensville Lakeshore High School graduate is involved with music in her first year at Southwestern Michigan College, and the elementary education major “applied on a whim” for the opportunity to meet and live with people from all over the world in company-sponsored housing in Lake Buena Vista near Orlando.

Perrin will network with leaders, take part in personal and career-development classes and build transferable skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, guest service and effective communication.

Band and choir are stress relieving hobbies to Perrin, who plays bass and contrabass clarinets, and taught herself to play ukulele because she said her hands are too small for a guitar.

Besides band and choir at SMC, Perrin works at the William M. White Hall desk and has volunteered at the Tri-County Head Start center on the Dowagiac campus. Her musical pedigree includes helping the Lakeshore Lancers marched to three Michigan Competing Band Association championships at Detroit’s Ford Field during high school.

She performed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during senior year and at Disney World sophomore year with the Lancers, but missed traveling to Normandy, France, in 2014 for the 70th anniversary of D-Day because she was only in eighth grade.

“I’ll be moving down to Florida Aug. 12 for fall semester through Jan. 2, 2020,” Perrin said. “I’ll be working at the parks and able to take college classes. I heard about the program from a high school friend who did it. I wasn’t expecting to be accepted. I’m from a small town, and this is an international program. I’m looking forward to it as an adventure, being out on my own and doing something fun a lot of people don’t get to do. Working attractions could mean anything from tickets to operating rides. My high school band and choir trips, I was part of something bigger. Now I’m doing something for myself.”

Perrin, whose two older brothers serve in the military, intends to return to SMC and then transfer after graduation to Western Michigan University.