In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Quality Guild is excited to announce upcoming changes happening within the QUEST community! Based on student and alumni feedback over the past academic year, the following brand new initiatives are underway:
1) Starting with the next set of cohorts (29 and 30), all QUEST students will be required to take a 3-credit Data Analysis course.
As you may have heard through rumors, beginning with Q29 and Q30, students must take a course on Data Analysis as one of their QUEST electives, and the course must be taken prior to 490H. Kylie King, QUEST’s Program Director, currently teaches one of the courses that will count towards this elective requirement: BMGT438A, Applied Quantitative Analysis. With this change, future students will feel much more secure in their data analysis skills, which will be critical to the students’ success in 490H and beyond.
2) QUEST Resource Guide for new students
Starting with this year’s new set of cohorts, all students will be handed a QUEST Resource Guide at orientation. Instead of having to hear through the grapevine about how to nominate a QUEST elective, join QUEST student organizations, or visit the alumni directory, this resource will provide all students with the necessary information they need to know everything about QUEST. This is also available on the QUEST website for the entire community.
3) Orientation for Spring Cohorts to be held in January
A big concern for the spring cohorts is that they have the potential to feel disconnected from the QUEST community between the time they have orientation to when they start 190H in the spring. With this in mind, the Quality Guild has decided to pilot moving orientation for the spring cohort to January beginning with Q30. These students will still be welcome and encouraged to participate in fall events prior to the start of 190H.
4) More QUEST events (i.e. presentations, classes) in CS and Engineering buildings
For STEM majors that are part of QUEST, they rarely have classes outside of QUEST in Van Munching Hall, which can make visiting the QUEST Lab and classes a strain. While the prospect of opening another QUEST Lab on the Engineering area of campus is still in the works, the guild has been holding more class sessions and presentations in that area of campus in the meantime. In addition, the QUEST Student Organization (QSO) has plans to hold events on that side of campus in the near future.
With all of these changes factored in, the Quality Guild hopes that this will better accommodate students and ultimately make the QUEST student experience even better than before!