How Roadtrip Nation Is Inspiring The Next Generation Of Entrepreneurs And Risk-Takers
Where does inspiration come from? For some young people, it comes from reading stories in books or magazines. For others, it comes from learning at the hand of an older mentor or teacher. For still others, however, inspiration is elusive. Recently, I caught up with an innovative organization called Roadtrip Nation at their southern California headquarters to learn how they've been successfully connecting young people with inspiring role models for years, and what their vision is for the future.
A personal road trip to the beach
I had heard of Roadtrip Nation before, perhaps from their highly-regarded PBS series of the same name, but I hadn't given them much thought until I met one of the co-founders, Brian McAllister, at a Partners in Learning event in Redmond,WA,where he was judging innovative teachers using technology in the classroom. Brian comes across as a classic California guy - tanned, charming, friendly, caring. It was great to learn about the roots of Roadtrip Nation and about some of their more recent forays into more formal education circles. Chatting with him during a coffee break was infectious enough that I had to arrange to visit their headquarters in Newport Beach, CA while I was on the west coast to learn more, and meet some other co-founders and staff.
Very early one September morning, I woke at my hotel in downtown Los Angeles and began the trek to Orange County, the next county south of LA, where Newport Beach is. To get in the adventurous spirit, I rolled all the windows down, left at 4am, and made my way to Santa Monica from downtown then headed south on Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). It's only about 50 miles, but you feel every inch of it, with twists and turns and stop lights and traffic and surfers changing on the side of the road and fresh ocean air. Previously having lived near Newport for my graduate work at UC-Irvine, I missed these drives up and down the coast. I took my time meandering down the coastline, probably driving three hours after stops for McDonald's and Starbucks and to look at the ocean and walk on the sand at sunrise. My own little road trip on my way to meet the masters of it.
Upon arriving at Roadtrip Nation headquarters later that morning after checking in for coffee with a couple ex-DC friends who made the move to nearby Huntington Beach, the first thing you notice is that it more closely resembles a garage than an office, with gigantic RV's and other assorted vehicles all over the place, indoors and out. Perhaps that's fitting of this organization -- a headquarters that truly represents what they stand for and what they do. I'm greeted by Mike Marriner, Brian's co-founder and currently the Director of Strategic Partnerships, who, in a typical California manner alternates between talking about his passion for his business and his passion for the amazing fish tacos he's going to buy me later. Either way, I'm in.
If Brian was what I'd describe as a typical California guy, Mike is even more so. I'm somehow still dressed somewhat like a DC policy wonk (despite my road trip down the coast), and Mike's in a plaid shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. (Wonder if I could get away with wearing more of that in DC? Another article, perhaps...) I am nevertheless accepted into their lair, clearly an outsider but one there to learn.
Mike and I chat about the origins of Roadtrip Nation on the original RV they used on the very first, and some subsequent journeys. It's covered with memorabilia - stickers, photos, handwritten notes, security passes from people they visited. You see, the entire premise of Roadtrip Nation is that this small group of friends - four in total, one of whom is no longer with Roadtrip Nation full-time, having moved on to other adventures - was in their senior year of school, around 22 years old, were anxious, and had a severe lack of inspiring mentors. They felt that school wasn't preparing them for what was out there in the real world. They had lost something primal, something we used to do as cavemen, a rite of passage to manhood (womanhood), as it were. How could they recapture that in the modern world?
Whereas many people would lament their own situation and go through life without meeting mentors and feeling inspired, these budding entrepreneurs in their early 20's had a different thought - what if they borrowed a family RV from one of their parents and went on a gigantic road trip to find their mentors? And so they did, cold-calling scientists, government leaders, artists, and people from many other walks of life that jumped out at them from the pages of newspapers, magazines, television, and so forth. They met with successes, and failures, but in the end they were able to meet with - and video document - lots of inspiring people.
So what happened? Well, for one thing, their experience became a best-selling book called Roadtrip Nation: A Guide To Discovering Your Path In Life in 2003, still carrying a 4.5 star rating on Amazon today. For another, their original road trip(s) inspired others to join this grassroots movement to find their own inspirations and paths in life. One RV became two, became three and so forth, and their videos provide the backbone of an online digital platform that now inspires many more. The adventures of their acolytes taking their own road trips has become the topic of a long-running PBS series of the same name (they're currently in season seven, which is more than can be said about your average TV program), one of that network's most popular programs.
And these road trip experiences have real impact. For instance, Mike told me an anecdote about a young lady from the relatively rural Fresno, CA area whose father worked on a farm, picking crops in a field. That was what she knew, what she saw for her future. But now, after a Roadtrip Nation experience, she's attending UC-Davis and majoring in animal science. Through the program, she was able to explore a wider range of possibilities for her path in life, without straying too far from her roots. Ultimately, the likelihood she'll drop out of school is reduced, and the likelihood of her succeeding at something she's passionate about is increased. And she is but one of many. As the Roadtrip Nation website says, "Our philosophy is that when we listen to ourselves and are honest about whom we are, and what we love, we are able to seek our own path and contribute to the world with our unique talents."
Roadtrip Nation is now entering a new stage on their journey, creating a new education department to help train teachers in fresh ways, and launching a Roadtrip Nation Education site at RoadtripNation.org. They rub elbows with the likes of Arne Duncan, the current U.S. Secretary of Education in Washington, DC and are a major draw at high-profile events like this week's NBC Education Nation (which Microsoft is the technology sponsor of) in New York City. Mike, his fellow founders, and their growing posse of passionate employees have evolved from being influenced by great people to being the great people influencing others within a decade.
What's RoadtripNation.org all about? You need an account to see everything, but their .org site is a portal for both teachers and students to gain access to a new type of curriculum, perhaps unusual - one that inspires. For students, the learning feels peer-to-peer, because video content is made, frankly, by their peers. For teachers, there's access to a special back-end of the site that helps them instruct using the materials. They're currently working with the California Department of Education on implementing this curriculum. Mike Marriner posed the question of getting students inspired to me this way, "How do you create common ground for real engagement?" What I think he means by this is, how can we work to create a platform - in real life or digitally - that makes students currently disengaged from the learning process feel like they can interact with peers and teachers in a meaningful way, on their level, in order to accomplish something, to take the next step? Yet, despite their creativity, Roadtrip nation is working with people who have oversight into education to make sure that their curriculum conforms to some well-accepted standards at the same time it provides authentic peer-to-peer learning for students.
Roadtrip Nation Education is a lot of things, but ultimately it is about having a real impact on the youth of America, which they've measured through both anecdotes and more recently through scientific studies. The education of today's young people goes far beyond schools - it's an economic issue, a national competitiveness issue, and even a national security issue. Seems extreme, but truly, it isn't. As Newark mayor Corey Booker said in an interview during NBC Education Nation, "The biggest threat to the national security of the United States of America, by far, is the fact that we are not educating our children to prepare and compete and lead in the 21st-century economy." Roadtrip Nation, between their real-life road trips, their publications and programming, and now their influence more directly on education, may seem unconventional at first glance, but in their oh-so-Californian way they are a vision of what Booker is talking about, preparing young people to compete and lead in the world of tomorrow. Summed up in the words of Maria, a student participant last spring, "It makes you think 'I can really be like this person and I can reach this goal.' After cold-calling and doing all this stuff I realized I can really do it, I can be who I really want to be."
Everything about Roadtrip Nation is artistic, from their bright lime green vehicles to the layout of their book to the entire office space they work in and the various materials they hand out. During my tour, I had a chance to meet some of the graphic artists and other people working on all this art, from the layouts of their printed materials to some interesting time-lapse photography/videography that they use on their websites. This is a world of no-frills creativity. But it works for them.
Frankly, a lot of large corporations could learn from the Roadtrip Nation artistic approach. Everything they do (even the PBS website about their show) has the same "homemade" feel that speaks to their brand. When you see their headquarters it feels like the website, and that feels like the book, and so forth. Sure, a lot of corporations are masters of conformity. What's interesting about Roadtrip Nation is that their conformity is interesting and doesn't feel, well, corporate. Despite their growth in size and influence, they're still a grassroots movement at heart and that's reflected in everything from their work products to looks on the faces of the people who work there when greeting a wonky guy who shows up for a tour in a suit.
As I sped off from the Roadtrip Nation offices on the next leg of my own road trip, to the Microsoft Irvine Technology Center, I walked away feeling somewhat inspired myself. Never having had a road trip experience like what their followers had, I was even a twinge jealous. Then again, I was fortunate enough to grow up with access to great mentors - Roadtrip Nation is systematically, artistically, and technologically helping others less fortunate than me gain access to the same.
One of the giveaways I left with, and what I will leave you with, is a homemade-style lime green sticker that I think (and no doubt, they think) sums up Roadtrip Nation's vision for America's youth very nicely: "The greatest gift you give the world is when you discover who you are, and manifest that." - Zen Master Bon Soeng