Portland Press Herald (ME)

January 9, 2006

TOTALLY WIRED ROAD TRIP
A Maine native and three friends hit the road to report on the dreams and aspirations of America's youth.

by TREVOR MAXWELL Staff Writer

Three days into the cross-country journey, Adam White woke up in downtown Boston, parked in the middle of a CVS parking lot.
The road trip, clearly, had begun.
"We wanted to get out and have this unexpected and unpredictable adventure," he said, "and that's what we got."
White, a 23-year-old from Damariscotta, graduated last year from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. He and three other college students created The Young Americans Project, with a mission to document the generation of people between the ages of 18 and 25.
For three months ending just before Christmas, the group traveled and slept in a rented RV, lovingly nicknamed Harvey. Their counterclockwise journey started in Maine, ended in New York City, and touched every state except Alaska.
(One of them hopped on a plane for a visit to Hawaii.)
Along the way they profiled a handful of young Americans in writing, photography and video. And they met hundreds more in cities and small towns, always asking questions about dreams, aspirations and the future of America.
A Young Americans Project book and documentary film are in the works.
"We started talking about this trip just about a year ago," said White, spending time at his mother's house in Damariscotta over the holidays. In the spring, the group drafted a business plan and a book proposal, and started fishing for sponsors to help raise the $20,000 needed for the trip.
They were shocked when Nantucket Nectars offered $6,000 in exchange for some publicity along the way. Then Penske pledged $5,000 if the group would get some video clips whenever they ran into a Penske truck. With some smaller donations from other sponsors and private donors, along with about $3,000 from each individual, The Young Americans Project officially started on Sept. 21 with a sunrise at Acadia National Park.
White was joined by fellow Dartmouth alums Matt Heineman and Ben Grinnell, and Boston College senior Matt Wiggins.
Their modern take on the tradition of road tripping was - appropriately for their generation - wired. They had laptop computers, state-of-the-art cameras, tape recorders and a tricked-out Web site that received more than half a million hits. Despite the technology and the sponsors, though, White and the others made sure to remain open to spontaneity. The four of them had full control of their itinerary and the material they produced.
When they saw a side road worth exploring, they didn't hesitate.
That attitude led to some of their most fascinating interviews, like their talk with an 18-year-old hitchhiker in Idaho, or the Italian plumber in Rhode Island whose dream is to be the next great adult film star.
Brady Hatch and Brendan McQuillen, organic farmers in Newcastle, Maine, were the first to be profiled for the project. By choosing a simpler way of life, Hatch and McQuillen hopped off the fast track after studying together at Johns Hopkins. They are focused on impacting their local community.
"It was totally fantastic," Hatch said of her interaction with White and the other project members. She has not yet had any contact from readers who visited www.tyap.com. Hatch enjoyed the photographs and writing based on their visit.
"I thought it was really wonderful what they did," she said.
White, who graduated last spring with a degree in creative writing, brought a sharp eye for detail and an honest sense of humor to the project.
His personality comes through in his blogs throughout the trip, and his profiles on such subjects as a 21-year-old biochemist in Boston, a larger-than-life college newspaper editor in Wisconsin and an AIDS activist in Oregon.
"We wanted to have an open mind about all of our peers," White said. "That being said, it's impossible to escape that we are four white males from the Northeast, who are relatively well off. I tried to keep myself open to trying new things."
So, what did the Young Americans Project find? Most of all, a generation that is tough to lump together.
"With each turn of the zoom lens, we get closer to the subjects, but further from an understanding of the generation as a whole," White wrote in a blog. "Perhaps part of the problem is that we, the disparate members of America's youngest adult generation, have matured without a unifying factor to bind us.
"There's no World War II to fight for, there's no Vietnam to fight against. The events that have shaped our lives have been disorienting and sometimes stratifying," he wrote.
In his generation, White met people who are alike mostly because of their determination to be different.
Whether they are interested in music, sports, science, or whatever, most young people want to distinguish themselves by their tastes. And with the world at their fingertips, that is easy to do, White said.
"There are a lot of independent personalities out there, a lot of people trying to do their own thing," he said. "It is possible to do your own thing in the mainstream. Technology makes this possible."
Right now, White is putting the finishing touches on his profiles for the book. He has received some interest from agents, he said. Heineman and Wiggins are editing the documentary film. Depending on the success of those efforts, The Young Americans Project could evolve. White doesn't know exactly what the future could hold for the four friends, but he is open to the possibilities.
In the short-term, White plans a move, maybe to Boston. He hopes to find a job to support his fiction and non-fiction writing.
"I came back craving stability a little bit," he said. "I want to put down my roots somewhere."