What a concept. Three college students in an RV for six weeks with a camera crew and an important mission: figure out what they want to do with their lives by interviewing inspirational Americans. Last summer, University of Miami juniors Christina Padis, Sean Murphy, and Tim McNaught lived aboard Monaco, one of the three green machines that ramble every summer from sea to shining sea as part of Roadtrip Nation.

Roadtrip Nation began in 2001, when four college friends from California videotaped more than 80 interviews on their own cross-country quest to map out the future. Their homegrown documentary spawned a corporate-sponsored travel program, a PBS television series, three books, and an online community. McNaught, Murphy, and Padis heard about the program through the UM Toppel Career Center and applied by sending a video “just being ourselves.”

The trio, who met as freshmen in Stanford Residential College, arranged interviews with CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings, CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello, former mayor of Portland Bud Clark, as well as “actors, architects, artists, journalists, a Zen master, a cave builder, donut shop owners, and plenty of other cool people,” says McNaught, who recently changed his major from aerospace engineering to economics and Spanish. The squishy living quarters also taught the team how to be resourceful—at sleeping, cooking, and personal hygiene (Murphy admits snagging a shower in a Washington, D.C. sprinkler system).

“The core message we picked up from all of these people,” says Murphy, a biomedical engineering major, “is that just like us, they didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives, but they stayed true to themselves. I don’t want there to be a difference between what I love and what I do.”

Murphy, in fact, added a theater minor to his studies after an interview with his favorite artist Alex Grey reminded him to nurture his creative side. This was pivotal for him, despite the fact that the trio almost missed the Grey interview due to radiator problems.

“I was flying down this tiny dirt road that was barely big enough for the RV, scraping the sides, saying ‘We’ve got to make it!’” Murphy recalls, reenacting his grip on the steering wheel.

“Thank goodness State Farm Insurance is one of the sponsors,” Padis chimes in.

Padis, an English and pre-med major, gained the most insight from Alex Steffen, executive editor of Worldchanging.com, an online sustainability-related publication. Through him, Padis learned that “The human capacity for work is huge when you are doing what you love.”

The “Miami Dream Team” footage will air as six Roadtrip Nation episodes on PBS in September 2008.