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Interning at the happiest place on earth

Electrical engineering grad lands Disneyland internship

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 12^th, 2025

John Dale Ramos has dreamt of working at Disneyland since he was a child. As the iconic song goes, he kept on believing, and now the dream that he wished will come true.

The electrical engineering student graduates from California State University, Bakersfield this month and will start as a power systems and facilities engineering intern at Disneyland in January.

“It’s my dream to work at a theme park, but I really didn’t expect it to happen like that,” Ramos said, snapping his fingers.

Of course, it wasn’t a magical snap of the fingers or a benevolent fairy godmother who got Ramos his internship — it was his own hard work and persistence, cheered on by a group of family, friends and campus supporters.

“I’m so excited to go work at Disney because it's part of my childhood, seeing these amusement parks and trying to understand the magic behind it,” said Ramos, 22. “I'm really excited to see where that leads.”

Climbing up the first hill

Ramos’ journey to CSUB has had many stops along the way, including one in Anaheim, where he’ll soon return for his internship. His parents are originally from the Philippines, where they had their first child, Ramos’ sister. As nurses looking for more opportunities and a possible path to the United States, they immigrated to Abu Dhabi, where they had Ramos soon after.

From there, the family moved to Anaheim, where Ramos got his first taste of the magic and joy that Disney can spark, well before he’d even gone to the parks.

“We were living on Euclid Street, 10 minutes away from Disneyland,” he recalled. “My parents always took us to Downtown Disney. We never went inside the park, but I remember seeing the fireworks. That was one of my first memories of theme parks, and that became kind of an obsession growing up.”

One of Ramos’ favorite pastimes as a kid was watching point-of-view roller coaster videos followed by videos explaining how they all worked.

“I feel like maybe that's part of why I wanted to be an engineer,” he said. “I feel like only later on in my college career did I realize, ‘Oh, that's a viable career.’”

Ramos moved to Bakersfield before he started elementary school. He’s stayed in town ever since, graduating from Frontier High School in 2021. As part of Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a nonprofit K-12 STEM program, Ramos got hooked on engineering.

“PLTW absolutely made the focus that engineering is cool, and then I kind of shut off my eyes to anything else,” he said. “I was just like, ‘OK, this is like the only thing that I want to do.’ Engineering felt like the only, and the obvious, path.”

Enrolling at CSUB in the College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME), Ramos first started as a computer engineering major. In addition to theme parks, he has also always loved video games and wanted to learn how his favorite devices and games worked.

However, as school got underway, Ramos wasn’t so sure if computer engineering was what he wanted to study. It didn’t help that in fall 2021, CSUB was still largely online, leaving him feeling disconnected from campus, especially from the vibrant Filipino community that drew him to CSUB in the first place.

Fortunately, things turned around for Ramos as pandemic restrictions lifted and he could enjoy the full university experience. Not only did he find the Filipino community he longed for — helping to revive the Kaibigan Pilipino American Student Organization and its dance team himself — but he also decided to switch to an electrical engineering major, a decision that would open up a whole new world of opportunities.

Kaibigan PASO Kaibinet at the second annual Kultura Night on May 2, 2025

Kaibigan PASO members participate in the Philippines national dance, Tinikling.

John Ramos with the Robotics Club's fifth place-winning 3D fixed wing glider plane for the CSU wide competition in 2024.

Picking up speed

Changing majors wasn’t a decision Ramos made lightly. His partner, a CSUB history student named Kayla Kiefer, helped him with a pros and cons list, and Jeff Deguia (NSME Career Pathways program manager) encouraged him to make the jump.

“Before he ever declared electrical engineering a major, he and I spent a long afternoon in my office talking about where he truly wanted to be in life,” Deguia said. “His love for the performing arts, paired with his passion for creating and engineering, made it clear that he was meant to blend his creativity and his technical brilliance. Guiding him through that process as his advisor — and helping him navigate his goals, ultimately supporting his major change into electrical engineering — has been rewarding.”

With a new major, Ramos spent a lot of time trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his degree. It involved some self-doubt at times, as well as crossing some possible career paths off the list. A trip to the Bay Area, for instance, helped him realize maybe the tech industry would not be a good fit for him.

“Then I kind of went back to my childhood, and I'm like, ‘What was I really interested in?’” he said. “Oh my God, roller coasters! Is that a possible career avenue?”

Unfortunately, his first application for the Disneyland internship in 2024 was not successful. Despite previous internships at Sun World International and the Air Force Research Lab at Edwards Air Force Base, he would need more relevant experience.

Ramos almost didn’t get the internship that gave him the necessary experience to land the Disneyland internship. His first interview with A-C Electric hadn’t led to an offer. When he saw the recruiter at CSUB’s Engineering Day in February 2025, Deguia encouraged him to talk to her. He asked her what he could improve on, hoping for better luck next time. Instead, the recruiter said she’d try to find him a spot on the team and, days later, called him to offer a summer internship.

“It was really exciting because I had internships before this and research experience, but nothing really like directly related to electrical and power systems,” he said. “I don't think I could have gotten (the Disneyland internship) without my internship at A-C. I feel like the biggest takeaway is that a lot of your experience just kind of adds up.”

The experience at A-C Electric gave Ramos the practical skills and experience required for the Disneyland internship, but he’d still need to nail the interviews. Wanting to be as prepared as possible, he ran several mock interviews with both Deguia and NSME Internship/Career Coordinator Alejandro Murillo.

“Usually what I do for mock interviews is look up similar questions to what they might ask,” Murillo said. “John showed up to my office with questions he already generated, and there were about 40 on that paper. He definitely overprepared, but I think that’s what helped him with his reassurance going into that interview.”

Ramos walked away from his Disneyland interviews feeling like he crushed them, a marked improvement in his confidence from when Murillo first met him.

In fall 2024, Murillo took a group of students to the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers conference. He remembered Ramos being incredibly shy, not feeling comfortable enough to talk to any potential employers there. When Ramos approached Murillo this spring for help with the A-C Electric interview, they talked about the importance of networking and communication.

“From there, he was talking to everyone,” Murillo said. “His growth has been insane within a year. He went from being a shy guy to a leader. I’m just proud of him. If there's something that other students can take from John, it’s his initiative.”

Deguia shares his colleague’s pride, saying he always knew Ramos would land in a position that fully embodied his personality and character.

“He isn’t just intelligent; he also carries a dreamer’s spark that makes the impossible feel possible,” Deguia said of Ramos. “Yes, there were moments when doubt crept in or when he questioned his own abilities, but those moments never lasted. He was persistent and constantly reimagining what life could be for himself. It makes a lot of sense that he landed an internship at Disneyland, a place built on imagination, innovation and the belief that anything is possible, as those are core to his character.”

John Ramos at his A-C Electric internship.

John Ramos picks a peach during his internship at Sun World in 2024.

John Ramos presents his team's Lego sorter at the Senior Design Expo in December 2025.

John Ramos at the 2025 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers conference in Philadelphia earlier this year.

Career Pathways mentors with Dr. Yolanda Cataño, the CSU Program Grant Manager, at the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators convention in Chicago, 2025.

John Ramos at the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators convention in Chicago earlier this year.

Enjoying the ride

Besides his internships, Ramos has also kept busy with other activities in and out of the classroom. He has worked on campus in the ITS Service Center and participated in a collaborative research project with University of California, Merced creating a defense mechanism against malicious AI. He also served as a peer mentor in the NSME Career Pathways program.

“What makes John exceptional isn’t just his talent or intelligence, it's really his heart,” Deguia said. “As a student mentor, he constantly demonstrates a warmth and generosity that helps him stand out. He has always been willing to give back, to support other students and to help the next generation dream even bigger than he has.”

One of Ramos’ favorite classes was the power systems course he took in spring 2024 with Associate Professor Dr. Saeed Jafarzadeh. He knows what he learned in that class will be useful for his Disneyland internship.

Ramos isn’t entirely sure yet what his six months as a power systems and facilities engineering intern at Disneyland will be spent doing, but he anticipates it could include working on ride systems and the entire electrical system that powers the park. He noted the distinction between Disneyland engineers who maintain the parks and Disney Imagineers who dream up new rides, cutting-edge animatronics and other park magic.

“I’m hoping that maybe there’s an avenue for me to work in the Imagineering space just to see how it works,” Ramos said.

After the internship, Ramos hopes to land a spot in the Imagineering internship program and eventually work full-time in the parks as either an engineer or Imagineer after passing his Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

Before any of that, he will walk the stage at graduation this weekend, with his family cheering him on once more. They will spend Christmas in the Philippines before Ramos officially moves to Anaheim to start his internship.

“I feel extremely lucky,” Ramos said. “I don’t know how I got this opportunity. I feel very blessed that I was able to pursue something and actually achieve it. It feels surreal still.”

Reflecting on his college experience, Ramos recalled a concept that he heard at a conference and took to heart: that everyone is standing on the shoulders of giants.

“All the people who worked and lived before me, my family legacy, brought me to where I am here now, along with all the people I met,” he said. “I really wouldn't be the same person if I didn't go to CSUB.”

John Ramos at the Avatar Pandora land in Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida in 2024.

John Ramos at the Paris area in Epcot in Orlando, Florida in 2024.

Interning at the happiest place on earth

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Footnotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); photos courtesy of John Ramos, except Senior Design Expo photo taken by Ardis

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FootNotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); photos courtesy of John Ramos, except Senior Design Expo photo taken by Ardis