This month, we have been welcoming back all of our QUESTees for a new, and some student’s final, spring semester! Although QUEST students were gone for five weeks and did not get to participate in innovative QUEST classes, they seemed to be doing some pretty cool and exciting activities on their own!

Celine Moarkech of Cohort 29, and QUESTPress’ Editor and Chief, spent part of her winter break in the country of Colombia! “I absolutely loved Colombia! In the craziest of ways, this trip was super QUEST-y. I did an AirBnB experience with an architect in Medellin to learn about the city planning and design post-Escobar, and I learned that so much thought went into it. From thinking about every potential user of city transportation to identifying the most efficient ways (ski lifts are regular forms of transport) to keeping everything sustainable, the city is not only developing amazingly for now but also for the future!”

Neil Duggal of Cohort 31 went abroad with the Smith School of Business and interactively studied the financial effects of Brexit in England and Belgium. “I really enjoyed visiting the historical aspects of each city. I absolutely loved learning about the military leaders and going to museums. The food was amazing – I could always go for some classic fish ‘n chips. Also, I went to Paris on my own and really enjoyed exploring the town of Versailles. If you go, definitely hit up the bakeries and eat every type of croissant imaginable.”

Charles Grody, Jack Sturtevant, and Tuvia Rapaport, all from Cohort 29, went to Queen’s University in Toronto to pitch Hydraze, their startup eco-friendly public toilet flushing system, in the Queen’s Entrepreneurial Challenge. Jack Sturtevant said, “We were one of fifteen teams to compete in the challenge, and only one of four non-Canadian start-ups. We made it to the final, which consisted of only six teams. This was a really cool opportunity for Hydraze because we got to pitch our idea in front of people like the Chief Marketer at Groupon, the CTO of Microsoft, Canada, etc. Charles Grody added, “This was actually all of our first time in Canada. It snowed a lot, so when we weren’t focusing on Hydraze, we were having snowball fights!”

These QUEST students really had some cool experiences this winter break! Sadly, its time to regroup and get back to class… Only four more weeks until spring break, but who’s counting…