“When there is no turning back, we should concern ourselves only with the best way of going forward.” – Paulo Coelho
It is with heavy hearts that QUESTPress says goodbye to three longtime members of the staff: Nicole Blahut, Matt Henricks, and Daniel-Jason (DJ) Minzie. QUESTPress, and the QUEST program as a whole, has benefited from and enjoyed the abilities, effort, and contributions of our seniors throughout their time with the program, from the laughs they brought in the classroom, to the trips they took together abroad. As we bid them farewell, we take a look back at all they have given to the program and all they have in store for them in the future.
Nicole has served as our Editor-in-Chief for the past year and has been writing articles for her entire tenure with the QUEST Program. Nicole has served as a 190H mentor, QUEST2CHINA Teaching Assistant and took the lead in organizing Cohort 20’s class pictures and awards. Her trademark pragmatism, enthusiasm, and positivity (as well as libertarianism) helped to build and guide a new, younger generation of QUEST students and QUESTPress writers and will be greatly missed as she moves on to bigger things.
Of QUESTPress, Nicole believes that “it has let me build better relationships with the faculty and allowed me to see the behind the scenes view of what’s happening in the program. I really enjoy when new members of the program join the team. They always have a lot of enthusiasm for generating stories and interviewing people.”
On what she loves most about QUEST: “The people I get to meet. Being surrounded by similar students who are highly motivated and accomplished has been so rewarding. Even after graduating I intend to keep a lot of the friendships I’ve made through the program.”
Her favorite memory: “Going to China with the program. Not only was it amazing to experience a new culture, but it was also great to get to know students in other cohorts.”
In the fall, Nicole will be working with Deloitte as a Commercial Business Analyst.
Matt has been QUESTPress’s technology guru for years, helping to build and maintain a new online platform for articles, training all new members, and evaluating our data analytics. He has been a part of Scoping, QUEST2CHINA, and 498K. Despite often times going days without sleep, his ability to always find time for a passionate conversation, his willingness to help a friend at all hours, and infectious smile who will be sorely missed.
On his favorite QUEST class: “China was easily my favorite class in QUEST and probably college.”
On his favorite moment in the program: “I really liked all of my final presentations through QUEST classes. Initially I was a pretty bad presenter, but I became more confident and the stress made me feel more alive by the end.”
Matt will be working as a Software Engineer for Microsoft next fall.
DJ has been the enigmatic, charismatic, edgy face of QUESTPress since his sophomore year. Never one to settle or be outdone, he was the no holds, outside the box engine that drove QUESTPress’s creativity. With eyes that can see right into your soul, you could always count on being entertained when talking with DJ, whether it was a discussion in the QUEST lab or a presentation in 390H.
On his favorite memory of the program: “My favorite QUEST experience was spending an entire Saturday taking nearly 3 million photographs with team Lutron at a sunflower field… even though we really should have been working on our project haha…ha (•-•). It was totally worth it though. Anh Le got 200+ likes out of one of my photos… I’m still waiting on that pay check.”
“My most memorable QUEST experience was the sheer terror of walking across the tight rope at QUEST camp: tall heights – not even once.”