[MUSIC] I didn't even know what a PhD was when I was younger, so I had no clue this is where I would end up >> Those who have earned doctoral degrees are in rare company.

Less than 2% of the population enters a doctoral program.

[MUSIC] >> Going back for my PhD is the hardest thing I've done, because I do have three children and I do have a husband, and I do work full time.

[MUSIC] >> Earning a doctoral degree is the most challenging academic path available.

Only half of those who begin a doctoral program will finish it.

>> Right now I'm working on my PhD.

When you get to the dissertation, that's where a lot of people start to drop off.

You hear that little voice in the back of your head saying, no, you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna do it.

[MUSIC] >> Those who take this path aim to become experts in their field by generating or applying new knowledge that pushes humanity forward.

But many believe that doctoral degrees are reserved for an elite few, only impacting academia and irrelevant in the real world.

>> I'm trying to figure out what my lasting impact is going to be.

What can you do and how can this degree have the impact to change the world?

>> What impact, hopefully, can I have once I get through this process.

>> I'm trying to hone into what is it that I really wanna do?

What space do I really wanna impact, because with the PhD, especially when you're embarking on research you wanna change the world.

>> So this past summer, me and two other doctoral candidates traveled the country and interview 12 different leaders who have all sorts of different doctoral degrees.

>> They're doing amazing things in the world.

We talked to people in all different kinds of fields.

>> An astrophysicist.

>> I study the dynamic universe.

>> We interviewed a doctor of musical arts, a prosecuting attorney.

>> I'm the founder and president of an organization called prosecutor impact.

>> A state senator.

>> This is my 7th year in the Colorado legislature.

I am also a licensed medical doctor.

>> A chemist.

>> A sports psychologist.

We had a chance to interview a veterinarian.

>> A therapist.

>> So I do standard talk therapy, treating a lot of addictions as well, a lot of trauma recovery.

>> We interviewed a PhD in engineering who started a comic strip.

We interviewed an author.

>> I write young adult novels, and I've written nine of them, I think I didn't count before I came here.

>> The president of the America's Nurses Association and a modern-day Wonder Woman.

>> The director of communication at the United Nations.

>> I do have a PhD although I see it as one step in a long and slow evolution for me of figuring out what I wanna do.

What I still and figuring out, as I'm sure that you're gonna feel for the rest of your lives too.

>> So we centered our energies around three things which is decide, survive, and pursue.

>> And that's kind of the doctoral journey.

First you make a decision to, okay I wanna go get this degree.

>> And then once you got into the program how did you make it?

How did you get through it?

>> How do I survive this program?

Cuz that's a really grueling process that we're all three in right now.

>> And then after that what was the impact, once you finish your doctoral degree what was next?

>> How did these leaders go from that decision way back in the day to go get a PhD, to where they're at now in life.

Because it's an incredible journey that we're all on and hope to stay on.

>> Y'all ready?

>> Yeah.

>> [LAUGH] Look at her.

>> She is like- >> She is ready to go in her red heels.

>> So my names' Crystal Frances, I am earning my PhD in public policy and administration.

>> My name is Callie Yearwood, I've been a nurse for 17 years.

And I'm currently pursing my PhD in nursing.

>> Well, I'm Jason VanFausen and I'm working on my PhD in English and focusing on children's and young adult literature.

>> So before the trip we were complete strangers and did not know each other.

>> From three completely different areas of the country.

>> It was this weird thing where you're gonna hit the road with strangers and live in an RV.

So you're gonna even become best friends or worst enemies, and luckily we all became best friends.

We're all doing such different things but we all have these one thing in common that we are on the road to find out how to make use of our Doctoral degrees >> So I went into the trip with my own expectations of how it would be.

Number one, it was my first time on an RV.

Number two, I'm like, okay, I've never lived with strangers.

[LAUGH] And I also did not know what to expect from interviewing leaders.

>> So one of the things that we really wanted to find out was what lead them to decide to pursue their doctoral degrees.

>> Because it's not something that a lot of people do.

>> Lots of people ask me why did you decide to this in the middle of your career?

And so that's a question that I wanted to hear from them too, because everybody story is a little different.

>> What was it growing up that got you interested in your field?

How did you decide to pursue this degree?

And what was that decision that said I'm going to become a doctor of whatever my field is?

[MUSIC] >> Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to get your doctoral degree?

What kind of drove you to choose the major you selected?

>> Mm-hm.

>> So why did you choose to pursue the degree path that you did?

[MUSIC] >> Just tell us a little about how you first became interested in music and why you decided to pursue your doctoral degree?

>> Sure.

>> How did you make the decision, and how did you know that was the right choice?

>> It was not the right choice.

>> It wasn't?

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> Could you maybe speak to us about why you chose to go get a PhD?

>> Well, I think I chose a PhD for the same reason most people choose to get a PhD which is you don't wanna get a real job.

>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah.

>> People have different reasons for why some people need it for their occupation, other people get it for status.

So can you talk a little bit about your decision to pursue a doctoral degree?

>> Yeah, I was born in Guyana, South American.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Yeah, you know Guyana?

>> I know a friend from there.

>> Now you got two.

[LAUGH] >> Yep.

[LAUGH] >> My parents made the journey to Canada and a farmer took us in and I had to work on that farm.

And that farmer taught me that you don't rest til the job is done.

That experience helped shape who I am today.

I believe that I can out work anybody.

>> One of the big take-aways that I think the leader's stories all kind of say is that there is no one mold for a PhD.

A lot of the people who went on to get PhD's, that was not something that they were necessarily familiar with or even thought that they would do.

>> I would say that in my own case, I mean it was not totally clear that one day I would do a PhD.

I mean I grew up on a farm in India and to think back then that I'll be doing a PhD is, I wouldn't even have dreamt of it.

>> So that was one of the most interesting thing that I would love to hear.

They all came from so many different backgrounds.

>> When I was nine years old, or 8 years old, I was singing around the house a lot, and apparently I could not sing.

>> [LAUGH] >> So my mother, [LAUGH] my mother in her great wisdom decided to put me in piano lesson.

So that's how I got interested in [LAUGH] piano.

>> And from there, that's when I kind of started my academic journey, and I did my bachelors, my masters, doctorate of musical arts, a little bit different than the PhD.

[MUSIC] When I was 23 years old, I had this idea that I was going to go straight to the concert stage.

[MUSIC] >> I grew up in Panama, and I was really interested in solving problems, and I was really inspired by the idea of always being on the cutting edge, devoted to something new that nobody had ever thought about before.

So I went to be an engineer.

>> I went to graduate school to be a professor of 19th century British fiction.

I chose it because I love to read novels.

If you would ask me what I want to do, I would have told you, I wanted to write for Marvel Comics.

But I had no idea how anyone would ever start doing that.

So I went to school for something that I had been told I was good at because I could not see how to get any other doors open.

>> I was the youngest of four girls.

We grew up in inner city Chicago.

In Chicago, there was a lot of racial discrimination and segregation.

I think when you're ostracized like that, you either become a bully or you become a nerd, and I became a nerd, and actually managed to graduate valedictorian of my high school.

My boyfriend, who was a year older than me, we're taking AP Biology together.

And I had this dynamic, dynamic African American teacher, and she comes up to me and she said, Irene, why is your boyfriend going to go to medical school, and you're just gonna be a teacher?

You're smarter than he is.

>> [LAUGH] >> And that was really it.

It was just having somebody say to me, this is within your reach, this is within your potential, you are smart enough to do this.

>> So I was encouraged to trust stand-up comedy.

>> Okay.

[LAUGH] >> So like an idiot, one night, I'm in.

>> [LAUGH] >> And fortunately or unfortunately, it went very well and it started.

Nine years ago I moved to New York City and really spread my comedic wings.

>> So a lot of the leaders that we talked to, one of the recurring things is that, people don't start off as a kid thinking, you know what, I'm going to get a PhD or a doctoral degree.

But there's something that happens that spares them to do that.

>> I was doing okay, but for me as a comic, I was bored.

So I started looking for something else to do with my time, and I started volunteering in the community for a shelter for sexually abused teenagers.

I absolutely fell in love with it.

I was just called to study psychology and specifically sexual abuse and trauma.

So that prompted me to go back to school, and it didn't hurt at all to leave that profession.

>> That's awesome.

>> That's great.

>> You say that you were called to do it.

Can you explain what that feels like and how you, how you knew you had to do it?

>> I can.

>> Yeah.

>> It was like this galactic shift, if you will.

It was so gentle, yet profound.

It's just whatever inspires you, whatever calls you, answer that call.

The answer will be revealed to you at the right time.

[MUSIC] I think it's what you have a hunger for, like for me, I always had a hunger for music.

So I think find what is that thing, like deep inside you that you're so hungry for that you cannot live without it, whateveryou're hungry for, that is your purpose.

>> The leaders were all talking about how they felt called to do their work, and that's one thing that resonates with me because that's the reason I went back to get my PhD.

[MUSIC] So I'm in a female motorcycle club and it's called Dangerouz Divas.

I think they call this dangerous because we're on motorcycles, [LAUGH] but we're really not.

[LAUGH] >> Hi, Dorothy, how are you?

>> Have a good day.

>> Thank you.

[SOUND] Let's ride.

[LAUGH] [MUSIC] I've lived in Baltimore most of my life.

Baltimore has one of the highest crime rates in the nation.

We're on the top ten lists of the most dangerous cities.

Growing up, I didn't live in a really great neighborhood.

I could've been a statistic.

I was a debater.

People used to say, you need to be an attorney.

Like, you know what, that might be cool.

So someone gave me advice, go sit in a court room and see how they try the cases.

I sat in the court room one day, and most of the cases that went up that day were traffic stops.

The first one was a guy, he was a college student, he was a Caucasian male, he was drunk.

He got into an accident, he had a really good attorney, it was a private attorney, of course.

Attorney did most of the talking [LAUGH], and basically the judge was like, all right, we're sentencing you to driving improvement course.

Next case comes up, this young lady, she was black, black female.

She was going 20 miles over the speed limit and she was pulled over.

She showed up without an attorney because she was like, this is a little traffic case, I'll be fine.

She didn't go home that day.

They sent her to 30 days in the Baltimore County Detention Center, which is jail.

And I'm sitting here, like, what?

This case will stick with me for the rest of my life.

People always talk about structural racism and sentencing disparity, but when you see it, that is something totally different.

I say, you know what, I want to be the person that's writing the policy, writing these laws.

My main career goal, is the US Senate I decided I'm gonna go get my PhD, because a lot of the societal ills that we face are very complicated.

>> Hi, I'm Jason.

>> Adam, nice to meet you.

>> The journey to where I'm at now started in a very different place.

When I was 19 years old, I got arrested for selling pot.

And my father was a white police officer.

I'm adopted I have a white father.

And just by virtue of the fact that who my father was, I get to sit here in front of you.

That was the most unjust thing I've seen.

Is just the zip code and my parent defined the rest of my life.

And while people always talking to me about personal responsibility, and people sort of motivating themselves, pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, it's like, that's the thing that you say when you come from the privilege that we have.

And every single day I saw hundreds and hundreds of kids that just didn't have that one little thing in their life.

People ask me, so what do we do, all the time, what do we do?

This is such a huge problem, do, what do we do?what do we do?

My answer is like, we use people who have the privilege to go and get degrees.

We need to fight for those people.

And the best way to do that is by going out, getting yourself this degree.

They need advocates and warriors to help them get there.

>> He's actually out there trying to be the change.

Like, he really gives me motivation to make sure that I'm pushing and pushing and pushing.

Because I wouldn't be where I am today if people didn't reach back.

When people make this big decision to go back and pursue their doctoral degree, it's difficult sometimes for family and friends tond pursue understand.ral degree, it's difficult sometimes for family and friends to understand.

>> A lot of the people don't get the support that they need from their friends and families.

People around them were saying, don't do this, or this isn't something that you do.

This isn't something that someone from this family, or someone from this state does.

>> [INAUDIBLE] to put a start on this direction.

Then the whole dome moves.

>> My parents didn't know what it meant to be a professional astronomer, or that was even possible, or something within reach.

I left home when I was 15, and I was a girl in India, in a small place.

The entire community was up in arms, there were people like neighbours, relatives, you name it, people I haven't even seen before.

Coming to the house and try to talk my parents out of this crazy decision to send their daughter alone on this journey to the other end of the world.

[LAUGH] To pursue something called astronomy or whatever that was, you know there was, the community was completely unsupportive.

>> How did you deal with that?

>> In my case the best way to deal with it was to just let that fade away in the background.

And not engage with it too directly.

>> I was accepted to Washington University in St. Louis.

And my dad said, why are you going to college?

You're just going to end up married anyway.

So waste your time.

>> You can't do it, you won't be successful.

You won't make enough money, you'll never make it to the top.

Cuz whatever reason, you're female, you're black, you're too old.

Our field is very European male, I'm obviously not, okay?

[LAUGH] >> Sometimes, like in the case of Dr Nancy Irwin, in the middle of your life you're completely changing course in doing this new and big thing.

So I mean, that was really something else we wanted to discover.

Why in the middle of your career would you change?

>> Yeah, I reinvented.

I was age 44, when I made that shift from comedian to therapist and of course there were a lot of negative voices around me.

My gosh, you're going back to school at your age?

How old are you gonna be when you finish?

>> [LAUGH] >> And I got to be really terse with them and said, well, same age as if I don't.

>> That's right.

>> I like that.

>> That's great.

>> Yeah.

>> That's a good one.

>> That's fabulous.

>> Life is moving on.

[LAUGH] >> Yeah.

[LAUGH] >> That's right.

[LAUGH] >> So for me as a performer, it's been to define myself.

And figure out who am I and what do I have that's unique to give, because in some ways I don't fit into the cannon, but that doesn't mean I don't deserve to be there.

>> My god.

[APPLAUSE] >> So, I think define what's unique about yourself.

>> They all had some sort of driving passion or question.

Some internal thing inside of them boiled up, and it was like, this is your path and you need to do this.

>> The experience of meeting people who had not let the noise drown out their focus was really inspiring.

So, we talked to them a lot about how they decided to pursue a doctoral degree, but then, once you get there, once you get to that point, how do you [LAUGH] accomplish this task?

[MUSIC] >> Once you decide to go get a PhD, I know from personal experience, it' so easy to drop out.

I can't tell you how many times I've thought about dropping out.

So, one of the things I want to know is how do these leaders persist in pursuing this degree.

>> You gotta survive through it because you're gonna hit bumps in the road that are gonna make you wanna quit.

>> It's grueling and it's intense.

>> I think it takes a special kind of person to finish the doctoral degree.

As we talked about, 50% of PhDs drop out.

[MUSIC] >> So when you get into your doctorial program, its a little different depending on what discipline you're in.

For me as a nurse, it was a couple of years of really hard courses.

And then after that is the dissertation.

Now, when you start, they give you eight years.

You have to complete in eight years.

And that sounds like, eight years, but then when you're doing it, you're like, I hope I can finish in eight years.

>> In the programs that I'm familiar with, especially in the humanities, you have usually two years of rigorous course work.

And then that's followed by a year of studying for comprehensive or qualifying exams in which my case, I write over 120 books.

And then had to take a very rigorous week and a half long exam.

And then the next step is a dissertation which varies from field to field but it's a book length manuscript.

You're writing a book length study on your research topic.

Generally, you're looking at at least four, years but in a lot of fields, it's upwards to eight or nine years.

And so I'm on year seven and will be graduating next summer and cannot wait to be finally done.

In getting a PhD, there's obviously a lot of challenges, right?

And feeling like I'm not good enough to be there or debilitating self-doubt.

>> It was terrifying watching people bomb out first year.

It was really difficult.

And it wasn't just like I'm a lazy student, I'm getting bad grades, I mean it's It's a really high stress environment.

And it's a lot different than college, and stakes are higher.

And so, watching people sort of like fizzle out while I was trying to balance being an adult and having two jobs.

>> Doing the course with your PhD, there are definitely road blocks along the way.

>> I think I had a very similar experience as a lot of people who go to grad school, which is, you did pretty good in your undergrad.

You were maybe one of the better students.

And so, you get there and you suddenly in a different pool of students.

My first year, it was really kind of a struggle and really kind of a crash, hit that wall of the ego where you thought you were pretty smart but suddenly you're sort of like you're barely average.

>> It's very overwhelming at times.

>> It was on my maternity leave for my second child that I wrote my final dissertation.

Which was terrible, terrible.

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> All of these people had to overcome incredible challenges.

>> In the middle of my PhD, I actually had three surgeries.

One of them was planned.

The other two were not planned.

There's other things that I have to worry about and I have to take care of myself.

So everybody has things that they have to deal with.

The ability to balance lots of plates, the spinning plates [LAUGH] is something that we talked about a lot on the trip with the leaders.

And that really speaks to me personally because here I am in the middle of my career with children that are school age and I've got this going on.

I was born and raised here in LaGrange.

It's a pretty tight community.

Most everybody knows everybody else.

My kids, my family Huge part of my life.

>> [CROSSTALK] >> I was really interested in medicine when I was younger, super interested in science, so I thought about nursing.

So, I started working in the That's when things changed for me.

This whole new world really was kinda opened up to me.

And I was like, there's more I wanna do.

[MUSIC] I do have three children, and I do have a husband, and I do work full time.

So time management is a big issue, lots of school stuff, lots of activities, camps and all kinds of things, driving them around doing things.

But after a while, I really decided being a good mom is more than just making sure they have their lunch every day.

I wanna inspire them.

[MUSIC] I'm trying to push through this PhD and it's a super complex and complicated process.

But one of the things that we heard from a lot of the leaders was how important it is to surround yourself with supportive people.

[MUSIC] >> One thing I do is, I am the first person to ask for help.

>> One of the things that really helped me a lot is that I have a very supportive adviser.

>> While it might be seem scary to just reach out, I certainly would encourage it.

>> Look for people along the way who are supportive of you.

Clearly, we all have people who are not supportive of us, and those are not the people we need, okay?

>> There's a few easy steps.

Number one is easy.

Get away from the people who will tear you down, right?

And we forget how simple that is.

>> I try not to surround myself with naysayers, you know.

If I get negative energy from somebody, I'm thinking, okay, we're only gonna be acquaintances, but not friends.

>> Get away from them.

And sometimes it's difficult cuz sometimes those people could be your parents.

They could be your sister in-law, your brother in-law, so it becomes more difficult because you can't just alienate those family members.

But you can choose your friends.

>> So you have to surround yourself with those people, and they may not be your family.

Be teachers or other friends.

>> If it's not your mom or your dad, then it'd better be your friends, it'd better be your partner.

If it's not you, but somebody around you would give you that little push, that little impetus to take the next step.

>> And that was very important cuz people don't think that you need support.

Like, if your family isn't supporting you, Dr. Aguilar was saying, get it from somewhere else.

She got it from her teacher cuz her parents weren't supportive.

>> You know, my mom hasn't been the most supportive, but she still supports me getting a PhD, but she doesn't understand it.

Right, so that was like really inspiring to hear that there is another side to that.

Yeah, so the biggest obstacle at the end of the PhD process is probably my lack of self confidence.

It's basically something called the impostor syndrome.

A sense of not feeling worthy enogh.

I know for me that's my biggest block.

The lack of self confidence made it so easy to think about quitting.

There was one specific moment where I had failed one of my exams, and I was like this is it, this is, I'm done.

I even went and cleared out my office and was like ready to quit.

There's moments where you want to give up and it's easier to give up.

To write a dissertation there's like debilitating impostor syndrome, and just a complete lack of self confidence.

And so I was wondering if you could talk about, how did you deal with that?

>> I mean, I had a lot of self-doubt, in stepping in front of the classroom, for example, for the first time, and at Columbia you do that your second year.

It became very quickly apparent to me that I could put on my tweed jacket and my professorial trousers >> [LAUGH] >> And put on lipstick and I sat on the top of the desk, and I was like, hello.

That's not being an impostor, that's legit, how everyone does it.

And I performed being a professor and that worked, and pretty soon right?

The self and the performance are intertwined.

>> When I look at confidence, you think about it as it starts in small steps.

You gain confidence by the first baby steps, and then you look for something else.

>> But what do you do personally to boost your self confidence so that you can keep going >> I think one thing, is I have to remind myself of my little successes, and celebrate them and let them sort of be motivators for me to continue.

>> The confidence comes from, well, it's the Latin word with fidelity, con fidelis, which means with loyalty.

When you're loyal to your values, literature, educating children, whatever your values are, that's what you plug into when you're doing it.

When you do that, when you sort of sit on your values and let them guide you, whatever you're doing, when they row your boat, the confident feelings will come.

People want the reverse.

They wanna feel confident, then go out on the stage.

It doesn't work that way.

You gotta have the courage to walk out on stage.

Then at some point, you will get the confidence.

Walk out on the stage.

Walk out on the limb, the court, the blank page.

>> This is so good.

>> I know.

>> [LAUGH] >> Does anybody else feel like they're getting a session?

>> I know the feeling [LAUGH].

>> One of the things the leaders stressed, especially Nancy Irwin, is that this is something you're always working with.

And she talked about confident acts creates confidence.

And so for me, one of the things that I was absolutely not confident in was driving an RV with humans in it.

So yesterday, we interviewed Nancy Irwin and she kind of talked to me about confidence, and so this is my first confident act, even though I feel completely like I should not be behind the wheel.

And so I'm just gonna do it, and pray that no lives are lost.

[MUSIC] >> All right, so you're gonna turn left on to Munnster?

>> Am I good?

Over there on the side.

>> Yes, you're good.

>> And when I first did it, I was scared, as I think anyone would be [LAUGH].

And as I did it more, I became less scared, and that fear turned into confidence.

First, it was I can drive this out of the camp ground.

Then I can drive this on the freeway.

Then I can drive this in a city.

Now, I'm driving this on the Las Vegas Strip.

I would be scared to drive a car on this ship in Las Vegas.

And then here I am driving a 37 foot RV, but that confidence wasn't created by myself, on my own.

It came from having a good navigator.

Hey, Crystal, can I get over one lane that way to your side?

>> Yes.

>> And also being able to ask for help.

And so bringing in that kind of competent act, mixed with having a team to help you do it, really helped me develop a confidence.

>> If you watch professional athletes when they make mistakes, they do what's called centering exercises.

In the field of sports psychology, you'll see people who clap.

They'll snap their fingers.

They'll point.

That's when you have to remove the negative, and it's a physical gesture we use.

It's like, we've gotta stop it, stop it.

You know what, you got this.

You got the next one.

And they replace it with that positive self talk, that positive affirmation, to get me moving in the right direction.

>> And so that was a big takeaway for me from all of the leaders is, we all struggle with this.

We don't always talk about this.

But it's about how you frame it.

Take this negative thing and turn it into a positive.

>> It's so hard, but when you see the daylight- >> [LAUGH] >> Yeah.

>> just plug away.

>> It was difficult, but it was empowering to see that like, at the end of every month, I was still there.

At the end of every month, I was still there.

>> Now, if you're thinking of quitting, you just have to keep in mind that it is worth it.

Finishing your dissertation is the most important thing.

Because that's what you came in for, and that's what you need to leave with.

>> Uh-hm.

>> PhDs, any academic, it ain't about who's smartest.

It's about who's willing to work hard.

>> Yeah.

>> They're gonna say no, you're gonna get a bad grade, they're gonna say, you did this wrong.

Okay, I'll redo it.

I'll redo it.

Happy to do it.

I'm no smarter than the average Joe across the street.

But I do have one thing that a lot of people don't have.

Is, I'm not willing to take no for an answer.

You gotta have staying power.

>> Be willing to stay with the discomfort.

You feel uncomfortable.

And not in pain, but uncomfortable.

And you stay, and you stay, and you stay.

And you think you're blocked, and you stay.

You have your butt in your chair, and you stay.

And you write the stupid thing in that uncomfortable place.

A little longer.

You think, I can do it a little longer, just a little longer, and a little longer.

>> My advice is to sit with the discomfort.

>> She was talking about sitting with the uncomfortable.

I mean, that hit home with me a lot.

Write, write every day.

Even if it's bad, write.

And then you'll have something that you can go back and fix or make better but you'll have written.

That's kinda how you have to approach your dissertation, write every day even if you feel like you have block or whatever, write.

I would definitely take that advice with me.

>> If you would have seen me when I was defending my PhD, I was a mess that day.

I was like I don't know this.

And I was reading up until two in the morning just reading these basic little details that I was freaking out about because that's what we do as grad students.

Where we freak out because we want to be the best.

>> Yeah.

>> And guess what?

You are on your way there.

>> Do you guys are the 1%?

[LAUGH] So when you talk about impostor syndrome, you are comparing yourself to the 1%.

>> I never thought of it that way.

That's crazy.

>> [LAUGH] >> I'm 47 years old and I still deal with that.

You're always gonna have self-doubt if you are a high achiever, because you're always gonna go to the next level.

And there will be a period where you don't think you belong, where you don't think you're good enough, and that's okay, because that means you're hungry and you're committed to doing that excellent job.

So don't look at that as a weakness.

[MUSIC] >> You are a brave woman.

>> You can do that?

>> Yeah.

>> Well if you fall down, that's it.

It's over.

Hey, but even though it's narrow right here, if you did slip there would be things to catch on to.

>> That's not helpful.

Aah, it's getting skinny.

[SOUND] This is scary.

[SOUND] I'm scared of heights.

>> Do you want us to help you?

>> No, I'll just take my shoes off.

>> There are some places in life you can't go with high heels on.

>> But I can bring them in my backpack.

>> That's right.

>> [LAUGH] >> I think getting a PhD, I think in the sense of just like here is a big mountain on this narrow path.

[LAUGH] It's gonna go up this huge mountain and then you get to the top and you're like all right then.

>> Yep.

>> Right?

If I can do that I can probably do anything.

And that really is what the biggest thing I got out of it, right?

>> Yeah.

>> Cuz I didn't think I was gonna be able to finish.

>> I don't think I'd be able to finish.

>> You are gonna be able to finish.

You're gonna do it bird by bird.

You're gonna write a page one day.

And then you're gonna write another page.

It's gonna be fine.

>> Why did I do this to myself?

>> Look, you're good, we're here.

>> Yes, we're here.

>> Wait, I think we need to leave something behind.

>> Like what?

A footprint?

>> Like fear.

>> No, I need that with me.

Crystal needs it to get back.

>> [LAUGH] >> I would say self-doubt, but Dr. Irwin said for us to embrace our self-doubt.

>> Yes, embrace it.

>> I've got the perfect one.

I've got the perfect one.

>> What?

>> Expectations.

>> That is a good one.

>> Okay, that's good, I like that.

>> So we're gonna leave them and they're not gonna matter anymore.

>> Okay, so is kind of like letting go.

>> Yeah.

>> And become our road selves.

>> That's right.

>> Yeah.

>> And then stay our road selves when we go home.

>> That's right.

>> I like that idea.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

[MUSIC] When you finally walk across that stage, [LAUGH] And they get, they said you are officially Doctor Mansi How does that- >> [LAUGH] >> How did that make you feel?

Because that's what I'm anticipating.

How's it gonna feel?

>> [LAUGH] >> You wanna squeal.

[LAUGH] But at the same time, someone's calling you a doctor, maybe I can't quite squeal like a little 10 year old.

[LAUGH] >> So now, it's like, when you get that PhD, what in the world are you gonna do with it?

How are you gonna continue to make that impact?

>> Who I want to be in this world as someone who has a doctoral degree?

In a lot of fields the only reason to get a PhD is to become an academic professor, but a lot of the people that we interviewed were not academic professor.

So it was like a really great opportunity to see how can you take this degree and apply it and make a difference in this world?

[MUSIC] >> Maybe give us an example of one time where you really felt like you made a difference >> One story, and I feel bad because I just write this story all the time.

And the kid's probably sick of it but.

So this kid committed two armed robberies in a weekend.

And I had known him for a few years through the justice system.

And it was so out of character for him that I asked the defense attorney.

If I could just talk to the kid, which is something the prosecutors don't do.

Because we're told not.

So I talked to him, and in that hour he told me about, sort of progression of his family.

Until he got to this point where he felt the need to steal the way he was.

And it wasn't cuz he was feeding a drug habit.

Or buying drugs to sell drugs.

It was because his mother was the last adult left in his home after a really stressful life growing up in the projects.

When he couldn't get a job in the city because he's a young youth of color with a criminal record, he thought this was the only way to get it.

So, I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said that he wanted to graduate from high school because nobody in his family had.

He wanted to go to college.

He wanted to play baseball.

And sitting there listening to that, I was like, well, you don't sound like a very at-risk, dangerous kid.

And so, I'm going to take a risk on you today.

We're gonna sit down and we're gonna write out a list of things that you need to do to get to where you wanna be and things that I need you to do.

And I didn't arraign him on the charges.

I didn't even charge him with the crime.

And so, this Friday, the young man took his college baseball team to the National Finals, where he started as a freshman.

He's the number one pitcher in the country.

He made the honor roll for the first time in his year in college.

And he's studying Criminal Justice cuz he thinks he has something to offer to the world, which absolutely does.

If you think about where Stanley would be otherwise, if I had prosecuted him normally, he'd be in state prison with a few years left on his bid.

Coming out at 23 years old, uneducated, unemployed, going back to the same thing that he was in with very low job prospects.

If you think that a prosecutor is making you safer by doing that than by taking a risk on Stanley and doing this?

I have this privilege and power just from these letters behind my name to go and do something just radically different.

There's degree that is a master sword in a fight for the communities that we care about.

And it's the best feeling to do it when you have the equipment to do it.

>> Adam Foss is doing this amazing work in law.

Do you know then you go to E.Lockhart, who is doing this amazing work as a writer, and inspiring young people, and the degrees could be so impactful.

But in such completely, vastly different ways.

>> So, E.Lockhart is one of my favorite authors.

She got her PhD from Columbia, and has gone on to write these incredible books that I love.

>> I love writing for teenagers.

It's a very electric field and it's also a field where there are all kinds of opportunities for writers to be activists or do good in the world.

>> So, I'm studying English and I'm focusing on children's literature.

Because I'm from a really teeny tiny town in West Virgina called Idamay.

And obviously in rural West Virgina, being gay isn't socially acceptable.

So in high school there was a lot of bullying, my car got keyed, people wrote awful things about me in the bathroom.

Basically, I was just like I want out of here.

I was reading books as kind of an escape.

I always identified with the character who was in some way made fun of or marginalized, because that's how I was feeling.

I would love to write a book that kind of speaks to that experience to help children understand that it's okay to be who you are, even when the world is telling you not to be that person.

>> I think getting a PhD and then becoming a writer, I mean you're setting yourself up in a great way, because that expertise will translate through your entire life, I think.

[MUSIC] >> Before the trip, I was scared to admit to anyone around me that I was even interested in writing creatively.

I to this day, I tell people I'm getting a PhD in English and they're like, so you're gonna be a professor, you're gonna be a teacher.

Well, that's one career option of many.

And E. Lockhart showed me that.

I'm getting this degree not to become a professor anymore, I'm not doing that.

I have stories to tell, and I need to get to work telling those stories.

Yeah, there is that professor job, but in my field like for example this year there we're only three jobs in North America.

>> [LAUGH] Yes.

>> [LAUGH] I'm so- >> [LAUGH] I've known that in there.

[LAUGH] Yeah, right.

And so, I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about how you took your DMA and moved that into this art entrepreneurship, which is so comperable but also so different in many ways.

>> Well, I needed to eat.

>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] I know that's not a very doctoral response, but I needed a job.

So you have to create what you have, and figure out how to make money doing that.

So for me that was the stage, and I did gigs from playing with high school choirs to professional stages.

The entrepreneur side, so whatever that is in your field, that's what you have to go for.

[MUSIC] >> Remember that the doctoral isn't about the job or the outcome, the doctoral was about the process.

You have learned things now that you'll apply anywhere.

The critical thinking, the ability to search for truth.

Don't look for the PhD job, look for the love still.

That's what I did, and I've never regretted it.

When you can't do that you have a PhD, you can't be a soccer coach that's crazy.

Yeah, I can cuz I love it.

And I became the best in the country and as add it.

I chase the love and I excel in it, so what's next isn't about the job.

What's next is about, what do I love?

>> For me, the main motivation for me to do what I'm doing today is that joy in discovery, right.

You might go out there and think universe is the same old thing every time, but it's actually not.

I'm looking for what changed.

The universe is just so beautiful.

[MUSIC] >> I knew in some way I wanted to be out there in the world using something that I had learned in order to push for change.

That's as much as I knew.

I wanna make the world a better place.

Success is any steps that are gonna make something better, make someone's lives better, make something change in the system.

It's gonna have a good outcome for everyone.

>> Elephant sanctuary is a place for retired elephants.

Almost all of them have arthritis from performing in circuses.

We want them to be free.

I've been helping the sanctuary for 20 years.

And success is something that's so individualized, I think I'm having success cuz I'm still having fun at this at 60, I still love what I do.

>> The PhD even across disciplines has the same thread of learning and the love of learning and new knowledge.

And drive and passion about creating something nobody has ever done before.

>> When I was a clinical nurse specialist, I was part of the team that took care of the first artificial heart patient in the United States.

>> Wow.

>> An amazing experience, and I was the person who knew all of the new monitoring system that we had just implemented.

And we had lots of technology challenges both with artificial heart, and a lot of other issues that we're going on.

So the rewards of saying man, I was part of this team that did ground breaking work, resonated around the world.

Those rewards are priceless.

>> So how would you say that you define success?

>> My immediate response is being able to do what you do everyday and love it, because too many people take their identity from their job.

That your job is not who you are, it's what you do.

And I think that can be harmful.

There is no price tag on the feeling that you get when you have helped a family or an individual through a really difficult, very intimate experience in their lifetime.

So I don't measure it in income.

I don't measure it in title.

Because I think we can be blinded to some of the really important things in life if we only look at those categories.

>> Right.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Help me welcome Dr.

Senator Irene Aguilar >> [APPLAUSE] >> I'm here to tell you that it's shameful that the riches country in the world does not guarantee healthcare for everyone as a basic human rights.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> So I actually never thought I would be in politics.

It was definitely for me a calling.

People sometimes ask, was there any particular thing that happened in your life that changed your life?

And I would say for me that was the birth of my daughters.

We had a very rare kind of genetically identical twins.

Their umbilical cords were entangled.

I ended up actually at bedrest for six weeks, and they were emergently delivered at 32 weeks.

And within a day, we realized that one of my daughters was gonna have struggles.

And so, that put me in the category now of a parent with a child with special needs.

And so, I looked for a organization to join that did advocacy for people with disabilities.

And while I was serving on that board, I learned how healthcare was financed in the United States.

And it really made me angry.

It really motivated me to wanna try and change it.

And so, I ran and in the end, I was successful.

>> Wow.

>> Determined to run the universal healthcare in our state in some way.

>> You're one of my new heroes.

>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] I like listening to you talk so passionately about healthcare access for vulnerable and underserved populations is very inspiring.

>> Thank you.

>> She was like, change needs to happen.

I'm gonna be the change, like she just did it.

It's things like that that make you think you could do anything.

>> So we're all coming to that place where the light is at the end of the tunnel.

If you could pick one piece of advice to give us in finishing this journey.

>> I think that you need to remember that what you're thinking about is, what is my next step.

And not that you're thinking about, what do I want the whole rest of my life to be like.

Because your next step will expose you to new and different things that then will influence what you think your next step will be after that.

You don't come out of school now and just become what you're going to be.

You start your journey, and it is a journey.

>> Her career as a medical doctor, and then these kinda unforeseen circumstances in her life led her into politics.

She really emphasize how we can always plan the things are gonna inspire you or motivate you, sometimes those things just happen and you have to go with it >> The main thing to learn is to be flexible and trust and follow your heart and they will always be a transferable skill in everything you do.

So, I say go with then and do what feels good to you at that moment, and just trust it will all come together at the right point.

>> I'm like, wow, I really had the chance to explore the United States.

And my takeaway is, never take for granted these United States.

I mean, I've had the opportunity to visit states that I haven't done.

I've done activities I wouldn't typically do.

I've been put in situations that I wouldn't be put in.

And so it's kinda one of those things, take the risk.

>> Being able to meet these people I never would have gotten to meet, and see things I never would have gotten to see.

I feel more grounded in my purpose.

But I feel more hopeful towards impossibilities.

>> You gotta sign it.

>> Hope.

Get some.

>> [LAUGH] >> I think so many times people talk about doctoral degrees as, it's a very selfish degree.

Right, if you're taking time out of your life to go pursue something that's so expert and niche to you, but the leaders who really made a difference in this world are the leaders who did it for selfish reasons, but also selfless reasons.

They're not mutually exclusive, so it was extrinsic as well as just, I wanna go and learn more, it was I wanna go and change the world.

Whatever size of that world is that person.

>> In going on this trip, I learned that making social change and improving the circumstances of people around us is something that smart people do.

And that's what I wanna do.

Before we went on the trip, I felt pretty confident in my ability to complete my my PhD.

I knew it would take time, and I knew it was gonna be a lot of work, but I felt like I would complete it.

I think what the trip added for me was this whole other level of understanding how important that journey and that process is.

Success is not like the destination that you get to it right now.

Being able to enjoy that, and having that inspirational feeling every single day.

Well, thinking about, okay, the work that I'm doing right now is going to change somebody's life in the future.

That is what I think this trip added.

So now, it's not just, yeah, I think I probably changed through this, I might be able to do this.

Now it's like, I know I can do this, but I also know that I'm gonna be able to do something with this.

>> This is why I wanna be a policy maker.

It's so important for me to go down the path that I'm going through and just having an interview with Attorney Forester is letting me know that I'm going down the right path.

And I'm doing the right thing.

Once I get off this road trip I'm just gonna guns blazing.

I'm just gonna go run full force and do apply everything that I've learned When I come back, there's an election coming up in 2018.

But even if I never make it to the US Senate, I won't give up, because I know that's not the only way to change policy.

I know that I can align myself up with organizations that are changing policy and that are advocating for policy on the hill.

So if I'm not the one writing it, I'm gonna be in the ear of the person that is.

>> It says when you feel like giving up, remember your why.

Future doctor, Crystal R Francis, #doctorroadtrip2017.

>> I love it.

>> Okay.

Before the trip, I had moments where it was really easy to, that self doubt, the lack of self-confidence made it so easy to think about quitting.

And, I think the one distinction after the trip is that, the leaders continuously talked about asking why are you doing this?

Who are you serving?

As well as like why did you get in this, to begin with.

What's that thing that lit you up to get you here?

And what's gonna light you up to get you done?

And so, I can get out of bed and write that dissertation and get this degree, because I'm getting this degree to make that impact.

Let go of you were to become who you need to be.

>> Well, it's just been awful being with Crystal and Jason.

They're just the most awful, selfish, self-absorbed people, I'm just playing.

No, they're absolutely wonderful and it has been a really great experience.

I don't know if I could have done this with two other people.

I feel like we're family, you know.

The connection that I feel with Jason and Crystal, I don't even know that I'll be able to put into words.

I feel pride.

>> So you know how when I said like at Split Wolf Canyon that we should just let go and leave our expectations, right?

>> Yeah.

>> And that's what we did.

So I think the busyness down here and the beauty out there means that we should not pick back up our expectations, but pick up our responsibilities and get to work.

That means we're going places.

>> You always have such profound things to say.

[LAUGH] >> I feel like I can do anything.

I might not be able to do it tomorrow, but I can do anything, it will take some time.

It's nothing else that's probably the big difference is like, this is the worst, I can't believe I'm saying this, this is so awful I believe in myself now.

That's so cliche.

You should not put that in there.

It's like, eww, that's disgusting [LAUGH].

Why would I say that?

[LAUGH] But it's true, I believe I can do things now.

>> To learn more about how to get involved or to watch interviews from the road, visit roadtripnation.com.