Junior Kylie Fuller opens doors by being accepted into the Disney Dreamers Academy. The high schooler is the first student from Four Corners Upper School (FCUS) to be accepted into the prestigious academy with only a 1% acceptance rate.
The Disney Dreamers Academy (DDA) is an annual program that typically takes place during the spring at Walt Disney World. The program is a 4-day event filled with networking opportunities as well as mentorship sessions.
“I heard of the program [DDA] through a Schoology post that Mr. Winters made. I looked into it right away and there were amazing people like Stephen A. Smith and Steve Harvey who you got to make connections with,” Fuller said.
The Disney Dreamers Academy website lists some of the requirements applicants must have to become dreamers, those being Intellectual curiosity, compassion, courage, generosity, and optimism.
Fuller has been a student in FCUS since 2021 and has taken part in many extracurricular activities including newspaper and cheerleading which she mentioned in her application to the DDA.
“My freshman year I started in journalism class and that is where I met Ms. Araujo. She [Araujo] definitely was the person to inspire and start this journey. Everything I do has stemmed from passion and I don’t think I would have genuinely known what passion is without journalism, so I give her so many props for that,” Fuller said.
When thinking about her inspirations, Fuller shares that her mother, Mallorie Fuller, has been one of her greatest enthusiasts and supporters which makes this opportunity even more special for her.
“I’ve seen my mom go through so many things. She had me when she was 21 and so we sort of grew up together. When I started going through really bad medical things in elementary school, she quit her job, she was the one staying with me and taking care of me. I know everybody is going to say, ‘Well that’s a mother’s job’, but my mom never acted like I was different from anybody else even though sometimes I felt like it and that was not her job, that was just her,” Fuller continued. “Getting to share this with my mom is a huge deal, she is a big Disney fan. The fact that I get to bring her along on this trip and put her in a hotel for a little while, so she gets a break, and we get to do this together is really special,” Fuller stated.
This was the second year Fuller had applied to the DDA which made the application process less stressful in comparison to her prior application.
“I knew how competitive the program was and after getting my hopes up last year, because it was my first time applying, I didn’t really have that high of expectations and I was more focused on just authentically portraying myself on the application,” Fuller said.
One of the things Fuller discussed in her application was her challenges with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).
“I did talk about my FND on the application. I was able to talk about how challenging that was, but not the physical aspect of it, rather the social and mental aspects, those definitely impacted me even more than physically being impaired,” Fuller said.
Through the challenges she overcame, Fuller kept exploring other sides of herself, so she connected with journalism and the possibilities within the career.
“Journalism has always called to me. I always had an interest in seeing what the celebrity was doing, but I didn’t want to be the celebrity, I more wanted to be the person asking the celebrity the questions,” Fuller shared.
As Editor-in-Chief, Fuller faced some obstacles trying to keep the journalism program open and running at the school, however, she discovered a new passion while doing so.
“Journalism has brought me so many opportunities one of them being teaching. We switched advisors a couple of different times and so I ended up in a role of a teacher. Teaching one-on-one or teaching in big groups, I love it, and I think there are opportunities for me within a teaching field but maybe not directly at a school,” Fuller stated.
Fuller’s aspirations in the journalism field remain ambitious despite any limitations due to lack of resources or even location issues.
“My dream since freshman year has been to write for the New York Times, but recently I have really wanted to lean into broadcasting. I haven’t been able to because of school resources and because there is not really a place for high schoolers to broadcast live around here,” Fuller explained.
Although Fuller’s resume is already filled with unique opportunities and groundbreaking achievements, she does not plan on stopping anytime soon.
“By my senior year of college, I would like to have been able to break into the news world, in an internship or a job, and maybe have created a program or Non-profit to advocate for people who have FND, whether I started a program or even if it is just research,” Fuller shared.
