Introduction
Time and time again I’ve heard students liken the internship/job search process to a class in itself. Considering the time commitment it takes to research perspective employers, arrange meetings, and prepare for interviews, it is easy to recognize the parallel– especially for a first-timer. The experience can be stressful, however, if you’re looking to master these types of skills (and get course credits at the same time), QUEST’s Developing Business Relationships and Scoping the Consulting Project course (BMGT438D) may be for you. In contrast to the average internship/job search, in Scoping students focus on exploring and developing partnerships within the QUEST community that add value to corporate sponsors, alumni, and current students. Most notably, we focus heavily on developing the Senior Consulting Practicum course projects.

What is Scoping?
Scoping begins by revisiting past capstone projects and analyzing the evolution of corporate partnerships. We develop an in-depth understanding of what areas in quality management, process improvement, and systems design make for impactful, actionable, and exciting QUEST projects. And with this understanding, we identify corporations to engage for either new or continuing partnership. This class prepares you to manage relationships that vary extensively from hot to cold, hands-on to hands-off, and well-established to brand new. Optimally, after agreeing on project sponsorship, the next part of the challenge is fusing client expectations, results from similar past projects, and observations from site visits to create what we term the “scope.” Teams generate a clear scope based on an area of opportunity that the upcoming QUEST seniors can tackle over the course of thirteen weeks.
Scoping focuses on precisely observing, bounding, and refining a business opportunity through gauging expectations of goals, benefits, and challenges over frequent prospective client interactions. Our team goal as a team is to scope out 80% of the senior consulting projects before the 490 teams take over to finalize the rest.

Why I Got Involved and What I Gained
As a Junior of Cohort 19, I enrolled in Scoping in order to immerse myself in every stage of my upcoming Senior Consulting Practicum. However, what I experienced was much more than I expected. Students in Scoping gain a unique and unparalleled opportunity to learn about the many facets of the QUEST program, including: its rich history, initiatives, events, program leadership, and community. I did not foresee the awesome experience of collaborating with students from multiple cohorts. For instance, seniors taking part in the course have been an invaluable resource, having already completed their 490 projects. The sophomores also provide a fresh perspective on topics covered in the latest installment of our constantly improving 190 course. Matt Henricks, a Sophomore of Cohort 20, summarized that throughout this semester;

“The scoping class provided a great outlet to practice my analysis skills and understanding of the voice of the customer in real business situations. Not only did I gain a great understanding of how many diverse businesses function, but also, working between cohorts, attained much better understanding of our (QUEST’s) own voice.”

All 12 of us currently enrolled in Scoping agree, the opportunity to work with corporate partners and alumni in a variety of environments exemplifies QUEST’s value of reality-based learning. Performing over 10 corporate partner site visits, including trips to Tulkoff Foods, Volvo, McCormick, Spectrum Foods, Transurban, and Unilever, my understanding of manufacturing procedures and supply chain management grew significantly. We had opportunities to see real-world applications of QUEST-taught concepts and tools at Thales Communications, PwC, UnderArmour, and BD, as QUEST alumni provide facility tours. For those of you that aspire to become consultants, this course provides invaluable experience. Standing in a Washington, D.C conference room in front of potential clients, you have the opportunity to deliver a team pitch, “selling” what QUEST can do for them. These experiences are as real-world as they get, and they teach you a ton.

Conclusion
One final reason why I recommend giving some added thought to taking this course is the ability to preserve the invigorating QUEST mentality that we learn from Dr. Bailey and Dr. Suarez. In between QUEST’s Innovation and Systems classes, many of us break off from the QUEST curriculum. Scoping class is a natural extension of the concepts and tools you learn in these courses. You are also able to work on a QUEST team closely led by program faculty, especially our dedicated professor Kylie Goodell. In conclusion, if you are not already one of those students that eats, sleeps, and breathes QUEST, then this course is the perfect prescription to hop on the bandwagon.