HONORS
Cover Story
Christina Lee and the makings of a career at
DISNEY By Stephanie Schupska
F
or Christina Lee and the other five individuals on Walt Disney Imagineering’s Show Software Interactives Team, the 20-hour workdays leading up to opening day of Disney’s NBA Experience were a mad dash of hardware and software and cameras and basketballs and hoops and slam dunks and code and more cameras and late nights and coffee-fueled mornings. The grand opening came like a sigh of relief. “The cool part of the NBA Experience and the grand opening is that we got to see the first guests come through the door and see it for the first time,” she said. “There was one little kid, we ended up referring to him just as the Lakers kid.” At four years old, by her rough estimate, he proudly wore a purple and gold Los Angeles Lakers jersey. On opening day, Aug. 12, 2019, the little boy stepped through the doors of the NBA Experience and stood frozen in place, his excited face illuminated by two stories’ worth of colors, lights, and video monitors. “The Lakers kid comes in and looks up—there are all these moving lights, and it’s kind of insane when you first walk in—and his jaw just drops,” Christina said. “That moment right there just encapsulates everything that makes the late nights completely worth it. It brings the magic back.” Full-time Disney Christina, an Honors senior and Foundation Fellow majoring in computer science, spent this past summer and fall working with Walt Disney Imagineering in Orlando. The first half of her internship revolved around the NBA Experience, an immersive, basketball-themed venue in Disney Springs that is “a slam dunk of fun for fans of all ages,” according to the Disney website.
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UGA HONORS PROGRAM MAGAZINE SPRING 2020
