>> Narrator #1: Everywhere you turn, people try to tell you who to be and what to do.

But what about deciding for yourself?

Roadtrip Nation empowers people to define their own roads in Life.

Every summer, we bring together three people from different backgrounds.

Together they explore the country, interviewing inspiring individuals from all walks of life.

They hit the road in search of wisdom and guidance to find out what it actually takes to build a life around doing what they love.

This is what they found.

This is Roadtrip Nation.

[MUSIC] >> Natalie: I took my first computer science class in high school.

In computer science, you're just constantly solving puzzles.

Like the application of computer science in the world.

And I was like, wow, if computer science is like this, then it's pretty fun, yeah.

>> Zoed: Computer science to me means understanding magic, how magic works.

Everybody sees their phone works, but nobody knows what it's doing inside.

The programming that's happening.

[MUSIC] >> Robin: Coding itself, like if it doesn't exist, you can create something.

Computers, they're there to just do so many things.

>> Natalie: Nice to meet you!

>> Robin: And it's not really costing you anything other than time and just learning it.

>> Zoed: So, how you doing?

>> Robin: Hey, Zoed!

[MUSIC] >> Natalie: My name is Natalie.

I am 20 years old.

Coding is just something I like to do.

There's 100 plus people in all of my classes.

Mostly male, mostly white [LAUGH] and then, there's me.

I don't know, I take pride in that, like that I'm different.

I love being that one person whose different.

Do I wish there were more people that looked like me that could actually relate [LAUGHS] to me?

Yeah, like, of course, obviously.

Not many people have been in my shoes, that's the thing.

I really want more of us to shine, but I was looking up people.

I Googled Brazilian computer scientists or Latina computer scientists and there weren't that many.

So, I'm like wow.

It's just tough going through something by yourself.

>> Natalie: So this summer, >> Robin: we're going to be traveling in this huge green RV.

We're going on a road trip across the U.S. >> Zoed: We're interviewing people who are successful and they're minorities as well.

>> Natalie: Who are under represented in Computer Science.

>> Robin: So we don't really know each other too well, but I'm beyond excited about it.

[LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> Natalie: Is this real life?

>> Zoed: Thing's huge.

I can't believe we're going to be driving this big old thing.

[MUSIC] >> Robin: This is a fancy, fancy bus.

[LAUGH] >> Natalie: It had a kitchen, it has beds.

It has lots of cabinet space, everything you need and more.

So It's pretty great, yeah.

[MUSIC] (Honks horn) >> Natalie: Woo!

>> Robin: [LAUGH] And people scattered, like.

>> Zoed: First we're going out to LA and then, San Francisco.

>> Robin: And then Nevada, then Colorado, then Chicago.

>> Natalie: And then, we're going to go through New York and then come back to Boston.

>> Zoed: What I hope for is a little bit of insight, just a little bit of advice that might change the way I think.

We're all taking this journey together, so I think we're all pretty pumped up.

And just excited to share with somebody who likes to the same things that you like doing so it's pretty neat.

Even though were very different, we also have a lot in common.

We're all first generation college students.

We've all seen how hard it is to try to push forward.

We've all had challenges, I guess you'd say.

[MUSIC] >> Zoed: Well, with the cops?

I kid you not.

I always fit the description, you know?

Always the same story, somebody robbed the liquor store around the corner.

Sure enough, they would pull me over and you always know it's a bunch of BS.

[MUSIC] Doesn't bother me, because the important people, the people that get to know me or what not, they obviously see who I am so, Those are the people that really matter [MUSIC] In my classes, there were only two other Latinos there.

It was definitely surprising.

I never really saw myself as a minority, but I saw that and I saw the class and was like, holy.

Yeah, there are very few Latinos in the Computer Science industry.

In my family, I don't have anybody that works In the technology industry.

They don't know about that area so they can't help me out there at all.

Another story to tell, another story to tell my little one.

I'm trying to bring my family up.

So by the end of this trip this will be the biggest exposure I have with the computer science field.

[MUSIC] [waves crashing] >> Robin: In general, people do seem surprised that I'm in tech.

When we come out to the reservation, there's been times where you know someone will be talking to me and they'll talk slowly.

Or people will say wow you were able to do this and it's like I mean I'm native, but I'm not a spectacle or a circus act.

Here I am at the school, people are saying I'm dirty or savage and I do get insecure sometimes.

People in the computer science field don't seem to look like me.

Usually if it's a fellow native, my friends are like, she's trying to be white.

She's going to that white school, because I'm pursuing higher education or because I'm pursuing tech.

So there's people that say "pretendian" and Apple because they would say Robin, she's red on the outside, white in the inside.

I don't think people even know tech is an option in my community.

I'm still figuring out where to go.

Where do I fit in?

Am I native enough?

Am I not native enough?

I keep trying to fit the square peg and fit into a circle and then get frustrated that it doesn't.

A lot of these people that were interviewing their pioneers in the kind of tech they're doing, and I'm sure they had naysayers along the way.

So, how do they get through that and get to where they are.

How are they able to prove it to people or prove it to themselves?

[MUSIC] >> Zoed: So by the end of this trip and you wanna come out a better person, a different person.

I know it's hard to say are you gonna be a better person or a different in just one month or four weeks you know.

We are going to be doing a lot and like I said I hope I do get a lot of insight.

>> Natalie: Just knowing a little more about like what it means to be a computer scientist would be cool.

>> Robin: We are all in computer science but computer science is a very very broad field and I think it's just opening up other doors and I'm hoping to get maybe well just other opportunities out of this, know of other things that exist outside of this.

>> Zoed: There's so many doors, so many routes that I can take.

Focus on security.

I might focus on video games, apps.

>> Natalie: I'm excited.

How could I not be excited?

[MUSIC] >> Robin: Today is day one of the trip.

Okay, so I'm really excited, we're going to LA next and we're going to interview Samy Kamkar.

He's a lot more than just a hacker, he's this security researcher.

>> Samy: Yep, so now it says control link not available and now it's attempting to connect to the drone that it hacked.

And then it's going to turn it on and take it over.

>> Robin: But really, he kind of got his name, and that's how I became aware of him for the Samy Worm.

Which, it's still the biggest web 2.0 worm that was ever unleashed.

And he created this when he was a teenager.

It would say, "Samy is my hero" at the top of peoples' MySpace profiles.

Over a million friends.

Back in the day, was huge.

So I was like, man, this guy is so cool.

I remember thinking about, maybe he's a potential person we can interview.

But I was like, no, too hard to get ahold of him.

I sent an interview request, and within a few hours I got a response, and it was just like no way, and I refreshed it a couple of times.

And now we're going to be able to interview him, and that's kind of mind-blowing, that's just crazy.

>> Natalie: So, first interview?

>> Natalie: Yeah, I don't feel as nervous as I thought I'd be.

>> Zoed: Yeah, I think I'll just get even more nervous when we get there face-to-face.

[MUSIC] >> Natalie: I'm Natalie.

I'm from just outside of Boston.

I'm first generation.

My parents come from Brazil.

No one in my family really knows about technology, like my dad texted me for the first time like two weeks ago.

[LAUGH] >> Samy: [LAUGH] Awesome.

>> Natalie: But I've always been interested in computers and switching to computer science this past year at Penn.

And I just want to learn more about like everything so that's why I'm on this trip.

>> Zoed: So if I could just start with like the most basic question, what got you interested in technology?

>> Samy: My mom she got me a computer.

I was kind of addicted just immediately and what I guess got me down the rabbit hole of hacking was like I was trying to chat with people.

Someone said to get out of the chat room.

And I'm like, I don't think so.

>> [LAUGH] >> Samy: And they say you have ten seconds to get out.

And I'm like, or what?

And so I don't get out.

And ten seconds later my computer crashes.

>> Zoed: No way.

>> Samy: It was my brand new computer.

So from then on I was like that, that was so cool.

I think it is so interesting that you can have that power, that ability.

And are there more interesting ways of, let's say, using a vulnerability or attack like that?

From there I released this worm on MySpace, made me a million friends, and it was a funny prank.

>> [LAUGH] >> Samy: It was all fun and games, until I got raided.

Literally the Secret Service came and took everything.

They took my computer, the took my laptop, my iPod and Xbox and everything.

So I actually didn't have anything.

Alright, I actually didn't have anything left of technology in my house.

And I actually went through six months of going to court and having an attorney and talking to the DA, because of this prank that I made and unfortunately the government told me I couldn't touch a computer for three years of my life.

Okay like I can do that like I don't know what I'll do but I'll do that.

>> Zoed: So it wasn't just the computer it was the technology too?

>> Samy: Yeah.

>> Zoed: They didn't leave you with an iPod?

>> Samy: They took my iPod that was the worst part yeah.

>> Zoed: That's vicious.

>> Samy: It was vicious, yeah.

>> Robin: Did you know at that moment that you were gonna go into computers for the rest of your life?

>> Samy: I had no idea.

>> Robin: So how did that even happen?

>> Samy: I had no idea that any of this is applicable in the real world or that you could actually like use this kind of software to make money.

Later I have my own company.

>> Natalie: How old were you when you started this company?

I'm 20 years old right now and I'm assuming, so where you around my age?

>> Samy: I was like 17.

>> Natalie: Wow, my god.

That is so cool.

[LAUGH] >> Zoed: We're so behind.

>> Samy: No, no.

>> Zoed: Before I get, do you think you could show us the?

Explain that?

>> Samy: Yeah, so this is something that I call combo breaker.

And it's a 3D printed motorized device, uses an Arduino.

I open sourced all the code, and what it does is you can actually take this device, it's battery powered, and if there's a combination lock that you have that you forgot the combo to even if it's on something you can put this on.

It goes right on the back the combination lock goes right on the back and this device will crack the combo, and it does it in about 30 seconds so I cracked this open, like, I took a drill and I opened it.

Most people won't do that.

If you do want to know more, crack it open.

Like, look at it in a way that other people haven't and just try to dig a little deeper than other people would.

Security research is aligned more with like, actually investigating and finding new vulnerabilities.

>> Zoed: Right, right.

>> Samy: I think for the most part we know many things are insecure despite who we purchased them from.

So I think it's great to have the researchers actually looking for these issues and then being able to tell the companies, for consumers everywhere, this is the problem.

You can fix this.

Take that extra step, challenge something a little bit more than someone else would.

That's the biggest thing that helps me is just looking a little harder.

What I'm trying to do is teach people how to hack and doing it in a positive way.

[MUSIC] >> Natalie: [LAUGH] Sweet.

[LAUGH] He's just doing what he loves.

Doesn't care about what anyone else thinks.

Everyone thinks, you're gonna hack into my system and tear everything down cuz all the movies, I think when you don't know about something, you tend to fear it.

So, I think we feared computer science for a while and that's why he was put on this three-year ban from technology because people were afraid of all the things he could do.

But they didn't trust that he could also do great things with them.

Say cheese.

He was literally just like us.

>> Zoed: He's super humble, super chill, you know?

Imagine, any one of us could have been like that bastard turned off my computer and that's it.

You get me?

He didn't.

He had the thought of, how the heck did he do that?

I'm gonna learn how he did that.

>> Natalie: And he was so young too.

He didn't let his youth get to him.

I would, I'd be like, oh my gosh, gotta respect my elders, they know more than me, but we're in this growing era of you can Google anything.

You can always learn more, so why not?

[MUSIC] >> Zoed: I don't know everything.

It hasn't hit me personally yet because I'm [LAUGH] still pretty much in my backyard, compared to Natalie and Robin, who flew in here from different states.

>> Natalie: I love [LAUGH] California!

It's really, really nice, so beautiful.

>> Zoed: We were in L.A., so that's pretty awesome.

The atmosphere, the people, the places, the buildings.

>> Natalie: Sunny California.

Wow.

[LAUGH] It's everything I kind of hoped it would be.

I really love it here.

>> Robin: It's like a whole month doing stuff like this.

This is not enough time.

It seems like this time is gonna go by in a blur.

A really fun blur.

And a really exciting blur.

It's been a really fun day.

[MUSIC] So I'm [LAUGH] hoping to get my PhD and then have children, but as a woman it's one of those, what kind of woman does things like that?

There's all these expectations to raise a family as soon as possible, and sometimes it's, you're less of a woman.

It makes me wonder if I'm doing things wrong.

>> Zoed: So, we're gonna interview Carolyn.

She works on robotics here at JPL.

>> Natalie: Which I didn't know, until this trip, stands for Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

>> Robin: I'm excited cuz robots.

[LAUGH] >> Natalie: One, two, three.

JPL!

>> [LAUGH] >> Natalie: The excitement is real, guys.

[MUSIC] >> Natalie: So, you go in the lab and you see, well, I don't want to be a Debbie-downer, but I saw a lot of guys and I wish I saw more females.

>> Carolyn: So I'm Carolyn Parcheta.

I've been here at JPL for a year and a half.

I'm a NASA postdoctoral fellow, I've just always loved volcanoes.

My mom can tell you stories of me as a two year old that I don't remember of talking about volcanoes and lava and so in high school when everyone says, follow your dreams, I said, well, why not?

[MUSIC] We're on VolcanoBot 3.

It involves coding, involves engineering and physics.

This is designed to go into volcanoes and map the pathway that magma takes to the surface to erupt.

But this is the farthest down inside the volcano in this type of feature that anyone has ever been.

So we're really pushing the boundaries and trying to see what this geometry is and how volcanoes erupt.

>> Robin: It sounds like you've done a lot of things, and you're now in charge of this major robot.

How did that transition- >> Carolyn: How did that happen, yeah.

>> [LAUGH] >> Carolyn: It basically just happened with an unanswered question.

I'd just spent five years in this area on Kilauea looking at this crack and all the lava it erupted, and I kept looking at this crack and going, what's down there, what's down there.

I have to know what's down there.

And when you become that interested in something, it just doesn't go away.

You're like, what's down there, I gotta know, I gotta know.

I decided to say, okay, well, let's go answer the science question, which no one has done before.

>> Robin: So you're a volcanologist.

>> Carolyn: Yes.

>> Robin: And you're jumping into a project with robots.

>> Carolyn: Mm-hm.

>> Robin: How did you keep your confidence about this project that you're on and?

>> Carolyn: I think the key is just ask questions and show that you're interested and that you're enthusiastic.

And if someone doesn't wanna help you, if they're not giving you the feedback you want, go find the next person and keep asking questions.

Cuz I have learned a lot of robotics on the fly and it's because I ask questions.

The first week I was asking literally a hundred questions a day, of Okay, what kind of tool do I need to put these two things together?

And how do I design this?

And can you show me the computer program for 3D modeling of parts?

>> Natalie: You seem like such an optimistic kind of person.

I'm just wondering where that stems from.

>> Carolyn: I think you have to be brave on some level.

When you have a bad experience, you always have the choice to choose how you respond.

And there's no point in getting down or pessimistic about things, in my opinion, because there's always another option forward.

But at the end of the day, if you can figure out what you're passionate about, if it's something that you just want to do all the time, well, I like volcanoes, and every time there's a show on Discovery Channel, I'm watching it.

[LAUGH] every time National Geographic does an article, I'm reading it and so that was my clue.

Start from there and just take steps forward of, okay, I'm gonna do this extra step today that normally would scare me but I'm gonna do this and be brave and conquer it today.

And it can be little, tiny steps, [LAUGH] it doesn't have to be a major, I'm gonna climb Mount Everest tomorrow.

It can be and should be little steps.

>> Natalie: Carolyn, just like, she was so cool.

[LAUGH] >> Robin: Talking to this woman who's so passionate, she just went ahead and did it.

And she's a total bad ass.

>> Natalie: Not many people go into volcanos, right.

So all these people saying like, you probably shouldn't do that.

And she did and now she's working at NASA, right?

So, yes, I have these confidence issues but I have a lot of potential.

And things may set me back but just gotta keep pushing through because I can, everyone has potential for greatness.

Just don't limit yourself.

[MUSIC] >> Robin: I'm at that point where I'm constantly being told, this is what you're gonna do and it's good enough.

Why don't you just settle for good enough?

>> Carolyn: Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon.

[MUSIC] >> Robin: Sometimes you don't know people are your hero until they say something like that.

[MUSIC] >> Zoed: Being exposed to all these people, it's pretty awesome.

It's exposure, I think just means more knowledge, more knowledge means more power.

You know what to do, you can't go wrong with being exposed to a lot of different things.

>> Zoed: Definitely enjoying this, and trying to soak up, you know, all of the experiences.

>> Natalie: This is the first time I feel like I'm doing this just for me.

I'm growing, and, I know that with all of these interviews, I'll gain something from them.

I'm hoping to develop even more of like a passion for computer science and also like a confidence in what I'm doing.

Hopefully I'll meet someone that let's me know that as long as you like what you're doing, it will be okay.

>> Robin: [LAUGH] You have an agenda for the next month, but you don't know anything thing that going to happen, you don't know what going to pop up, so the uptight part of me was just like, what?

[LAUGH] And then also the part that likes spontaneity was just like, so exciting.

[LAUGH] >> Robin: I can't wait for the entire trip, I just hope it's going to be fun, and I hope it's going to be a big adventure.

>> Natalie: I'm pumped, I'm ready, looking forward to what the future has in store.

[MUSIC] >> Natalie: This is the hub for tech and innovation.

>> Phillip: The lack of people of color within the tech industry is really disheartening.

You know, you're not the guinea pigs, you're the astronauts.

[MUSIC] >> Amie: You know, you're working on team coders, and here I come, and they're like what are you going to work on?

>> Laura: I'm going to be in this industry, and this industry sooner or later is going to understand, when I was a kid, I was picked on all the time, and I was like, why can't I just fit in anywhere?

>> Sabry: Don't fit, why should you fit?

>> Narrator #2: Roadtrip Nation extends beyond this program, creating resources to help anyone define their red in life.

Here's a snapshot of Being You, a documentary focused on learning and attention issues.

>> Leader #1: It's not about learning to live with your ADHD or learning to live in spite of it, it's learning to thrive with it and to celebrate it.

>> Road-tripper #1: Having a learning disability, it's so hard, it's like there's a disconnect.

>> Road-tripper #1: So we're doing a road trip interviewing a bunch of different people who have really overcome some challenges that we might face.

>> Leader #2: All the people coming up to me, like you didn't have a good enough teacher.

You could read, you know, that kind of thing.

>> Leader #3: You're on this trip just go everywhere.

Whatever happens, be open to everything.

Just say yes.

>> Road-tripper #2: I didn't know all these amazing people existed, and I don't know all these amazing places existed, >> Leader #4: As someone with a learning disability, I actually thought I never need to talk about that again, and I'm just not going to tell anyone.

Thankfully, I quickly forgot that idea, I realized I didn't want to be alone.

>> Road-tripper #3: What I want to walk away with is just hope, I really want to be okay with who I am.

[MUSIC] >> Narrator #3: To learn more about how to get involved, or to watch interviews from the road visit roadtripnation.com.

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