UNC seniors hope to travel to Berlin, armed with only 24 Red Bulls

While some plan to start their summer working as an intern or vacationing on the coast, three UNC students are vying for a spot in a competition that will take them across the globe.

Seniors Emily Shaljian, Ross DiBetta and Molly Crosswell are campaigning to participate in the biennial "Red Bull Can You Make It?" competition, which is set to occur in early May.

The competition flies teams of three university students to one of five cities in Europe. From there, each team must travel to Berlin without money or personal phones. For seven days, they are reliant solely on 24 cans of Red Bull as currency.

“You don't have a place to stay, you don't have food to eat, you don't have anything, you don't have transportation,” DiBetta, a computer science major, said. “You have to trade Red Bulls for everything that you do.”

The application process for the competition includes an initial public voting round, followed by a round facilitated by a panel of judges, who evaluate a promotional video created by each team. Those who garner enough votes in the first round will reach the panel of judges.

“I think we are ninth right now out of all of the teams in the US and we have to be in the top 104 teams in the US to make it through the voting round, so we’ve just been reaching out to everyone we know,” Crosswell, a biology and Hispanic literatures and cultures major, said.

Shaljian, a biology and Hispanic linguistics major, said 15 of the 195 teams from all over the world will be from the United States.

“We are one of the only teams in the top 15 that have any girls in them at all, so it's predominantly a male competition,” Shaljian said. “We think that the judges will probably like that about us, and if we have votes it'll show that we have a broad audience.”

During the competition, the completion of adventure checkpoints earns each team points, Crosswell said. These points can be gained through completing tasks, reaching certain locations or through social media interaction. Points can also be awarded in the form of more Red Bulls.

“It’s not a race, and they emphasize that a lot, that it's not a race,” Crosswell said. “It's about the experience, and it really is based on the amount of points that you get.”

Shaljian learned about the competition through her sister, who completed the challenge during her senior year of college. She said she thought about it as a sophomore, but ultimately decided to wait until her senior year.

“I remember thinking, ‘I really have to think hard about who I want on my team, because there are some people that you definitely can't do this with,’” Shaljian said. “It's not an easy challenge.”

Shaljian said it is a stressful experience, but her team members know each other well and each offers lots of different strengths to the group. 

DiBetta said the competition is a way to take individuals out of their comfort zone and allow them to have experiences they might not take advantage of or be able to afford otherwise.

“Our application video is all about the UNC campus. Our team name is Chapel Thrill, we’re UNC seniors, this is our last hoorah,” Crosswell said. “I don't think you can get much more Carolina pride than what we’ve demonstrated.”'

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