(light music)

[Lucy] 40 finalists, 20 winners, 100,000 dollars

to drop out of school and pursue our dreams.

I'm Lucy, and this is Teen Technorati.

(ring back tone over dramatic music)

We are picking 20 people.

I find it sad that we have to cap ourselves somewhere,

but I guess we do.

(ring back tone)

Hello!

Hi!

Hey!

[Danielle] I love the new blue.

[Catherine] Thank you.

I've always wanted to have blue hair,

and then I figured why not right now.

[Catherine] I think it's beautiful that

the foundation has collected such an incredible encyclopedia

of living people that will make a difference in the world.

Hello.

[Danielle] Hey Thomas, how are you?

I'm doing pretty good, how are you guys?

Whether or not I get the fellowship,

I'm gonna continue to push this project forward.

[Alexander] I wanna leave a legacy.

I wanna be remembered as someone

that came up with a solution that never existed before

to a problem that's always been there.

[Danielle] We just have a couple more questions,

so now still a good time?

Let's do it.

[Danielle] The first question is, let's see,

we'd like to invite you into the fellowship.

I'm in?

[Committee Together] Yes!

Yay!

(Laughing) Wow.

Yay!

(cheering)

Yes! Are you kidding me?!

(laughing)

Oh my God!

That sounds awesome.

Now that they've been selected,

over the summer we help them with housing in the Bay Area.

100 percent, I cannot wait to be out there.

Oh my God.

How do you think your parents are gonna feel about this?

I suppose that my mother, when she heard

that I wasn't going to grad school,

became very worried that I would,

you know, become a rock star.

(laughing)

Dye your hair blue.

Exactly.

So, I think that she will feel safe

that I'm now associated with an institution formally.

[Danielle] Fellows are always welcome to go back

to school once they finish their fellowship.

And we have seen that a small handful

have gone back to school.

Well, they're not happy.

My dad kind of hung up on me.

Oh no!

I think that in your youth, it's the best time

in your life to just take risks.

Like, go out and try new things.

Be a kid, or don't be a kid, drop out of college.

Like you're an idiot, we're not talking, and hung up.

But, I'm used to that, to be honest.

Go pursue your dreams,

because that's really the only time in your life

you're going to have the freedom to do so.

My answer is yes.

Don't worry, I'm going to have a lot of things planned.

I'm gonna text my mom right now.

[Committee Together] Yeah.

Call your mom, don't text!

Call them!

Okay, I'll call them, I promise.

It's exciting to me that I now have

the mentors and community I need to advance

my project in a more efficient manner.

And now that I have the freedom

to learn and do,

that's just really, really exciting to me.

In ten years, I see myself continuing

to frolic about in the combination of computer science,

physics, and math, and continuing to develop

assistant technology to help people in need.

I didn't think I would get it.

Really, how come?

I don't know, I just felt like

everyone was so strong that weekend.

It's probably been the biggest achievement

I've done so far.

But hopefully at one point, I can add to it

is save millions of lives.

I don't think I've ever been at a point in my life

where it could just go one of two ways,

and they're both great but so opposite directions,

and I'm super excited, you have no idea.

You've just absolutely changed my life.

[Catherine] This is what success feels like.

I am exactly where I need to be right now.

No matter what you want to do,

if you work hard enough at it,

there's literally always a way to pull it off.

I wanna change the world.

(inspirational music)

[Lucy] It's been an incredible journey.

But there are more challenges ahead.

Do we have what it takes to push forward

with our projects in the real world?

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