There used to be a time that living full-time on a bus was associated with being a member of unwashed and laid-back penniless hippiedom. Generally speaking, living on a bus wasn’t a lifestyle people aspired to unless they fully embraced the philosophy. Once regular folks began to see how glamorous tricked out school buses could be, they started to see the value in completely renovating old buses and taking them to the next level while taking them on the road. These renovated buses became so popular and gained such a following they even got their own name: skoolies.

In 2014, four grad students from Notre Dame’s engineering and tech based ESTEEM program became enamored with the idea of skoolies after reading about them online. They decided to buy a school bus, renovate it, and take it across the country. Nick Machesney, an ESTEEM engineering student, and three of his classmates thought up the project. Before long four other students eagerly hopped on board, for the final total of eight.