On May 2nd, 25 winners were selected to be in the inaugural NextUp class and were announced on YouTube. Among the winners was Peter Bragiel. Originally from Chicago, Peter is now in L.A. He has developed content designed for travelers and has documented several of his own travel adventures, including a recent trip from L.A. to the Panama Canal via public transportation. His ultimate goal is to host and produce his own travel show.

WYT: Where were you when you first learned that you had won?

Peter: When I first learned that I won, I was on a conference call with YouTube. They tricked me into thinking that as part of the selection process they needed to ask a few questions via video chat. So I logged on, and was prepared to answer anything they asked. Once the interview began, they said " You Won!" That was a great surprise, because in all honesty, I was NOT ready to answer any questions.

WYT: Who was the first person that you told?

Peter: The first person I told was my girlfriend. She was in the living room, and could over hear that something was going on. So once I got off, I walked in and told her.

WYT: How long did it take to make your video entry and what was the most challenging part?

Peter: The video entry took me probably around 4 hours. I wasn't going to do submit actually. I was looking around YouTube the day before and noticed that I missed the cutoff for the contest. I went back to the site and then realized they pushed it back a few days. So that gave me one day to shoot and edit. 6 hours left until the deadline, I hunkered down and shot it all on my web cam with the script on the screen. If you watch, you can notice my eyes going back and forth. I didn't have time to just go with the flow. So I shot that, then pieced together old clips (which took a long time because of the different formats I shot on through the years), and uploaded it with just half an hour to spare.

Here is Peter's entry video:

WYT: Who was the most help to you in this project?

WYT: What's next?

Peter: What's next? Still figuring that out. All I know is that I leave for NYC next week for the Creators Camp and then onto planning my next trip and I'm leaning towards Canoeing down the Mighty Mississippi!

After his trip to NYC, Peter recently posted this:

Peter is one of the nicest YouTubers out there. His adventure videos uploaded on YouTube are amazing, fun and entertaining. Watching his videos will make you want to get up out of our seat and go travel yourself. Lots of excitement is revealed in Peter's travel videos but he goes further by showing his audience real life situations and a few mishaps along the way. He combines great sceneries with good (and not so good) people that he meets along the way along with important travel tips.

Many thanks to Peter for sharing his experiences with YouTube NextUp and we wish him all the best! Be sure to check out the links below to see more of his work.

http://www.youtube.com/pdrop

http://www.intransit.tv

http://www.facebook.com/inTransitTV

http"//www.twitter.com/PeterBragiel