This is an archived UW-P news item,
originally posted: 5/9/2007.
Allen Luke
Graduated: 1974
Job: Manager of Special Events
Company: Walt Disney World
Anyone familiar with the success of the Walt Disney Company knows that:
"It's all about the Mouse!" In other words, the image and brand that is
Mickey Mouse.
As
manager of special events at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., Allen
Luke gets to experience the success of the Mouse every day.
Luke
is originally from Burlington, Wis., and attended St. Mary's High
School. His journey to UW-Parkside is like that of many alumni. "I got
married young," he said. "We had a beautiful baby girl, I worked full
time for two years and then enrolled at Parkside."
Because he
was able to take most of his classes two days a week, Luke was able to
continue working. And that's rather important when you have a couple of
other people depending on you.
Luke also describes the
UW-Parkside experience the way many alumni do: openness and
accessibility to faculty; professors with real-world expertise in their
field; and passion.
"I chose Parkside because of it's proximity
to Racine and because it was a state school," he said. "Many of my
economics and business professors had previous actual business
experience and I could relate to that very easily. Richard Keehn was a
great example of that ... majoring in economics, how could you not
relate to his degree from the University of Chicago?
"I was and
still am struck by the passion of all my Parkside professors--Richie
Rosenberg, Larry Duestch, Tom Peterson--great professors, great
education, great experience."
For Luke, at Walt Disney World, it's all about the Mouse; at UW-Parkside, it was all about the experience.
