SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JACK O’CONNELL ANNOUNCES NEW PILOT PROGRAM TO HELP HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS EXPLORE FUTURE PATHS

FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

November 12, 2008

CONTACT: Deb Kennedy
PHONE: 916-319-0818
E-MAIL: dkennedy@cde.ca.gov


FRESNO – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today hit the road to Fresno to announce a new pilot program designed to help high school students find their paths in life.

“I am happy to announce the California Department of Education has partnered with the founders of Roadtrip Nation, an organization dedicated to helping young people find their path in life, to create a ‘Roadtrip Nation Curriculum,’ which is being piloted in the Fresno area. Roadtrip Nation’s programs enable students to explore on their own and to interview individuals they find of interest. Now they are working with high schools so more students can use this process to find their passion and career potential,” said O’Connell.

Currently 1,000 students in the Fresno area are participating in the pilot program: 500 students in the Fresno Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program and 500 students in the Fresno Regional Occupational Program (ROP) program. Both programs are designed to introduce students to college or career options.

The concept of Roadtrip Nation was developed by Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard. After graduating from college, the three discovered that they didn’t know what they wanted to do next so they decided to take a road trip to figure out their place in the world. They looked for and interviewed people around the country who were passionate about their work and asked them how they found their paths; how they turned what they loved to do into a job, a career, a business, a foundation, even a multinational corporation.

 For three months, the trio traveled across the country in a green RV covering 17,000 miles. In that time, they interviewed 85 individuals, including Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks; Craig Venter, the scientist who decoded the human genome; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; the director of Saturday Night Live,  and many others. The three men came to realize that young people across America needed more exposure to the world, and that perhaps they could provide a process to help drive that spirit of exploration. 

So Marriner, McAllister, and Gebhard developed “Roadtrip Nation,” an organization dedicated to helping individuals define their own lives. The Roadtrip Nation (RTN) philosophy is shared in a PBS television series, three books, an online community, and a college student network in more than 350 campuses internationally.

Every year, in the fall and spring, Roadtrip Nation’s fleet of three green RVs tour college campuses across the country holding grassroots events, film screenings, and recruiting sessions to empower other students to hit the road on their own road trips and  discover their own paths in life.

“After a few years of developing RTN on college campuses, we came to realize that college was actually too late for many students,” said Michael Marriner. “So last summer, we went to State Superintendent O’Connell and talked to him about our ideas of bringing the concept of RTN to our high school students. With his support, we are here today with the green RV meeting with the first students participating in the Roadtrip Nation pilot program.”

“The Roadtrip Nation curriculum is designed to open the window to the world for our students so they can clearly see the opportunities that await them after graduation from school,” said O’Connell. “I know this program will change the lives of many young people and help make what they learn in high school more relevant and meaningful.”

Students participating in the pilot program began their journey by exploring online at http://www.roadtripnation.com, where they can view hundreds of RTN interviews with experts and industry leaders who talk about how they got to where they are today. These inspiring videos are grouped into various interest clusters so that students can explore potential career paths based on their interests. After exploring the RTN video archive, students then begin to build their own local Roadtrip experience by interviewing people within the Fresno community.

Leaders in the Fresno community who have already been interviewed by RTN students include Darryl Rogers, a former National Football League coach, and Dr. Floyd B. Buchanan, the first superintendent of the Clovis Unified School District.  

“One thing that RTN has learned over the years is that the impact from the road is not about the miles you travel but the people you meet along the way,” said Marriner. “Students need not travel all the way to New York City to find inspiring people. They can simply look right in their own backyards to find a wealth of experiences and inspiration that can catapult them on their own life's journey.”