From Learning on the Midway to Learning in the Classroom
How Higher Education Is Building the Next Generation of Attractions Industry Leaders

When I entered the amusement park industry, there was no clearly marked educational pathway into our business. Nothing.

If you wanted to become a lawyer, you could go to Harvard. If you wanted to become a doctor, you could attend Yale. If engineering was your ambition, MIT offered one of the finest technical educations in the world, along with numerous other universities throughout the world.

But if you wanted to operate an amusement park, manage a theme park, develop an attraction, understand guest service, supervise ride operations, or build a career in the leisure industry, there was really no place to go.

There was no degree in theme park management. There was no college laboratory where a student could study admissions, food service, merchandise, safety, entertainment, crowd movement, capacity management, and the psychology of the guest experience. Most of us early adopters learned the business the old-fashioned way, from the ground up.

We learned by selling tickets, sweeping midways, operating rides, handling guest complaints, and watching experienced operators make decisions. The park was our classroom. The midway was our laboratory. Our professors were the men and women who had spent their lives operating these facilities.

That education was valuable, and I would never discount it. There is still no substitute for standing inside an operating park on a crowded Saturday afternoon and understanding what is really happening.

However, today’s young people have something my generation never had. That is, an organized educational bridge connecting the classroom directly to the attractions industry. That change is beginning to have a meaningful impact on the quality, preparedness, and career direction of the people entering our business.

One of the finest examples is Bowling Green State University’s Resort and Attraction Management program, commonly known as RAAM.

Originally developed through a partnership with Cedar Fair and now associated with Six Flags following the companies’ merger, the program combines academic instruction with guaranteed paid cooperative work experiences. Students study the business of attractions and then apply that education inside operating parks.

Bowling Green describes the concept perfectly. The university is the classroom and the amusement parks are the laboratory.

The program includes instruction in park operations, resort management, food and beverage, merchandise, safety, security, marketing, finance, human resources, technology, and product development. Students must complete two substantial paid cooperative experiences at participating parks or similar attractions. Bowling Green reports that 91% of its RAAM graduates have accepted or continued employment within six months of graduation.

Those statistics are important, but the individual stories make the impact real.

Evan Ponstingle is an excellent example. Evan entered Bowling Green’s program with a lifelong interest in Kings Island and had already written Kings Island: A Ride Through Time. Through RAAM, he gained practical experience at Kings Island, Hersheypark, and Cedar Point. After graduating in 2025, he joined IAAPA as a digital content associate, helping tell the story of the global attractions industry.

Evan did not merely graduate with a diploma. He graduated with industry experience, relationships, specialized knowledge, and a clear understanding of where he wanted to go.

Asher Raymond followed a similar pathway. While attending Bowling Green, he gained marketing and communications experience at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and previously worked in the Cedar Point market. Today, he is the public relations specialist at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia.

Joe Prentice and Alex Gillman were members of Bowling Green’s inaugural graduating class. Prentice moved into an area-management position in games at Cedar Point, while Gillman became a front-office manager at Cedar Point’s Hotel Breakers.

Other graduates are demonstrating the breadth of the program. Shane Romano accepted a year-round position at Cedar Point, helping design and produce experiences associated with HalloWeekends. Ethan Kirk used his education and work experience to enter a hotel-management training program leading toward an assistant general manager position.

These careers illustrate an important point. Theme Park education is not limited to operating rides. Modern attractions require expertise in finance, technology, lodging, human resources, communications, entertainment, engineering, revenue management, culinary operations, and many other disciplines.

The industry has become too large, too technical, and too sophisticated to depend entirely upon accidental entry.

It has also been interesting to watch the Rosen College and the Orlando Classroom programs expand and develop into a world class curriculum in the attractions Industry.

Rosen began offering theme park and attraction management as a specialized hospitality track in 2001. It evolved into a certificate in 2020 and became a full Bachelor of Science degree in Theme Park and Attraction Management in 2023. Its location is extraordinary.

Rosen students study in Orlando, the most concentrated attractions market in the world. Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, major hotels, smaller attractions, design firms, suppliers, the IAAPA Global Headquarters, and the annual IAAPA Expo are all located within the same regional ecosystem. Orlando itself becomes an extension of the campus.

The Rosen curriculum addresses management, creativity, and technology. Students study how attractions are conceived, financed, developed, and operated while gaining access to internships, industry executives and employment opportunities that could not have existed when I began my career. The information was just not available.

The results can be seen in graduates such as Kevin Joralemon, who became a senior analyst of global strategy at Universal Destinations & Experiences, and Frank Hamedl, who became a human-resources business partner at Fun Spot America. Both credited Rosen’s theme park coursework with helping prepare them for their careers.

Corey Clancy, another Rosen graduate, progressed into Walt Disney Imagineering while continuing his education in themed-experience studies.

In 2026, UCF and Universal announced an additional academic collaboration, the Universal School of Experience Leadership and Innovation. It is another indication that the relationship between higher education and the attractions industry is moving beyond occasional internships and becoming a genuine workforce-development strategy.

This was an idea that began to take shape at Cornell University in 1992. The concept of advanced Amusement Park Industry education did not suddenly appear. In January 1993, IAAPA conducted its first Amusement Institute Program in partnership with Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. IAAPA’s history records the Cornell program as one of the important milestones of its 75th-anniversary year and describes it as advanced training for senior attractions management. People like Rene Aziz from Mexico, Alain Baldacci from Brazil, and 30 others attended the IAAPA inaugural higher education program.

I remain especially proud of that effort because I was involved in the concept, development, and implementation of the IAAPA educational program at Cornell. That work resulted in my receiving IAAPA’s Outstanding Service Award in 1993.

The Cornell program, conducted January 23–28, 1993, was not a four-year undergraduate degree. It was an executive educational experience intended to bring professional, university-level management instruction to established industry leaders.

Nevertheless, it represented something larger. It was an early recognition that our industry deserved the same intellectual seriousness, structured management education and academic attention given to hotels, manufacturing, finance and other major businesses. We were planting a seed. At that time, we could not have fully envisioned programs like Bowling Green’s RAAM degree or Rosen College’s attraction-management degree. But the underlying principle was the same, that operating an attraction is a professional discipline, and that discipline can be studied, taught, measured, and improved.

The IAAPA Foundation is now helping turn that principle into opportunity.

The Foundation supports students through academic scholarships, experiential scholarships, and professional-development opportunities. Academic awards assist with tuition and fees. Experiential programs bring groups of students to IAAPA Expo, where they can attend educational sessions, walk the trade-show floor, meet employers, and see the enormous scope of the global business. They can become ambassadors for the industry at the Orlando convention.

For the 2025–2026 cycle, the Foundation announced approximately $122,500 in support for 105 scholarship recipients, representing its largest annual commitment to this point. Since its inception, it had awarded more than $300,000 to more than 195 students across North America and Europe.

That investment is about more than writing checks. It gives a young person permission to imagine a career in our industry.

A student attending IAAPA Expo for the first time discovers that the business extends far beyond roller coasters. The student sees architects, engineers, manufacturers, technology companies, museums, aquariums, zoos, water parks, family entertainment centers, food suppliers, and entertainment producers. Everyone of interest and decision making comes to Orlando. The industry suddenly becomes visible, understandable and attainable for many of these energetic, fire-in-the-belly candidates.

The Difference Education Makes

Twenty-five years ago, many young people still entered the attractions field almost by chance. They took a summer job, became fascinated by the business, and gradually worked their way into management. That path still exists, and some of our finest leaders will continue to emerge from it. But today, a student can enter the industry intentionally. That is the fundamental change.

These newly created higher curriculum programs shorten the distance between enthusiasm and professional competence. They teach students the language of the business before they are asked to lead it. They expose them to safety, finance, labor management, guest behavior, and operational planning before a crisis requires that knowledge. And they offer on the job training!

But equally important, they also benefit employers. Parks can recruit graduates who already understand that our business operates nights, weekends, and holidays. These students understand seasonality, per-capita spending, capacity, guest recovery, and the importance of both safety and hospitality. Their education does not eliminate the need for practical experience. It makes that experience more productive.

I fully believe this is now the doorway into the industry. A young person interested in this field no longer needs to wonder where to begin. He or she can explore Bowling Green State University’s Six Flags Resort and Attraction Management program, offered both in person and online. Students can examine UCF Rosen College’s Theme Park and Attraction Management degree, also available through online study. IAAPA’s education and Foundation pages provide information about scholarships, student programs, professional institutes, and experiential opportunities.

Students and interested young people should also attend the IAAPA Expo, to learn and seek seasonal park employment, pursue internships, join attraction-related university organizations, and contact professionals already working in the field.

A degree alone will not create a successful career. Passion, work ethic, curiosity, and hands-on experience remain essential.

But for the first time in our industry’s history, education and experience are being joined together in a deliberate career pathway.

When I entered this business, there was no university roadmap. We learned where the road went by traveling it ourselves, occasionally taking the wrong turn, backing up, and beginning again.

Today’s students can still learn on the midway, but now they can also learn in the classroom. What an advantage! They can arrive at their first management assignment with both practical experience and a professional foundation.

That is not simply good for the student. It is good for every park, every attraction, and every guest they will eventually serve.

Most importantly, it is helping ensure that the people who lead our industry tomorrow will understand not only how to operate the business, but why the business matters. This has been an amazing journey in which to participate, learn and now enjoy watching its success. Onward and upward!

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