Becky Murphy wakes up in sunny southern California. She drives to Anaheim and strolls into Disneyland. Thousands of eager faces wait for the gates to open, but she goes right into the park: It’s her day job.

Murphy, a class of 1997 alumna, has been working with Disney since 1994 through a summer program that allowed college students to spend their summers working at either Disney World or Disneyland. Since then, she has worked seven or eight jobs at Disneyland.

“It’s an interesting company to work for,” Murphy said. “The Walt Disney Company has it all.”

Disney offers employees opportunities to work in radio, entertainment, sports, television, animation and marketing.

Murphy majored in drama at the UW and said that the experiences she had here were beneficial for her job at Disney.

“It’s the idea of working with people side by side who provide something for others,” she said. “A drama show provides entertainment for others, and Disney provides entertainment for others.”

The job has its perks, too: Employees get complimentary passes to the Disney theme parks. That is, they can also spend their days off at their workplace.

Murphy doesn’t even mind spending Christmas at work.

“The best part of working at Disneyland is the family I’ve become a part of by being a cast member,” she said. “Maybe I’m coming to work on Christmas Day so I don’t get to be with my blood family, but the silver lining is that I am here with my Disney family, and we have a good time.”

The work environment is enjoyable for Murphy, who loves that her job provides her with “the ability to meet people from all over the world.”

Her favorite ride is the Matterhorn roller coaster, because Disneyland is the only Disney theme park that has it.

She was initially attracted to the job because she grew up in southern California and often visited the park with her family. She sees herself remaining with Disney in the future, possibly working on new projects, such as an expansion of the California Adventure theme park or the new park in Hong Kong.

Murphy started as a food operations “cast member,” which is what Disney calls its employees. She eventually became the official Disney Ambassador in 2004, through which she represented the 20,000 Disney cast members, relayed information to the media, and had meet-and-greets with visiting foreign dignitaries.

“[The ambassador job is] kind of like the Miss America of Disneyland minus the talent and swimsuit portion.”