Category Archives: Where Are They Now?

Following Your Passions: Alum Spotlight on Nahom Tekle

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Nahom Tekle from Cohort 24 graduated from the Robert H. Smith School of Business in 2016 – but his impact is still here! One of his major accomplishments as an undergraduate student at Smith was participating in the Smith Business Academy (SBA), and he has come full circle, working to expand SBA to other schools today.

The Smith Business Academy is a student-run program for minority men within the business school. Based on national standards, minority men have a historically lower graduation rate, and SBA wants to overcome this. By following their founding intention – “Building men with distinction” – SBA focuses on creating a supportive community where personal and professional development is promoted.

Tekle speaking at a recent Smith Business Academy event

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Alumnus Jeff Lue on Being the Change He Wants to See

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Jeff Lue (Cohort 16) was preparing for a meeting with his boss a few months ago when suddenly it dawned upon him – he did this exact project in college. After pulling out his laptop and meticulously searching through old notes, he finds his QUEST presentation! During the meeting with his boss, the two laugh about how he ended up living one of his college dreams.

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Celebrating QUEST’s Evolvement Over the Past 30 Years

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Having just admitted Cohorts 39 and 40, it’s fitting to reflect on how QUEST has evolved over the years. I was able to talk to four different alumni, ranging from Cohort 2 to Cohort 29 about their experiences in the QUEST program. It was evident that while specific programming and courses may have changed, the same impact remains. 

Vikas Majahan from Cohort 2 was a student in QUEST during the period it was under the IBM grant and was called IBM-TQ. For those unaware, the QUEST program was formed in 1992, with a 1-million dollar grant from IBM as a part of their Total Quality Management (TQM) initiative. Majahan entered the program as an engineering major, and QUEST helped him realize that while his skillset was analytical, he could also use those skills in accounting/business. Following his graduation, he began working as the Assistant Director of IT for the Smith School of Business. After leaving this role, he gained experience in tech and cybersecurity-focused roles at companies such as Microstrategy, PwC, AARP, and a cybersecurity consulting company called Likeminds Consulting. Majahan began working for the American Red Cross in 2015 and is currently the Chief Information Security Officer.

Vikas Majahan (Cohort 2)

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QUEST Alumni Undergo Impressive Career Transitions

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During your college and early professional years, it’s common to feel that the career decisions made now are indefinite and will affect you in the years to come. While it’s important to prepare yourself to secure post-graduation plans that align with your goals, QUEST alumni themselves show that where you begin your career journey is not the end all be all. I was able to speak with 3 successful alumnae who have undergone career changes recently in order to learn from their journeys. 

Mary Smith (Cohort 29)

The first alumna I had the pleasure of speaking with was Mary Smith, a member of Cohort 29 who graduated in Spring 2020 with a Mechanical Engineering degree. While in college, Smith got experience working in industry by interning at Oceaneering for two summers and a winter term. During her first summer with Oceaneering, her role was within Quality Engineering, but she completed her second internship within Mechanical Engineering. When considering post-graduation plans, Smith said that she knew that she “already had an established role at Oceaneering that she could jump back into” and that it would be an awesome first job. Thus, she accepted a full-time position and started as a Mechanical Engineer in July 2020. Unexpectedly, about a year after starting at Oceaneering, Smith’s engineering teacher from her high school approached her about an open teaching position. Smith explained that it was a very tough decision to take the teaching position because she “knew it was a dream job but didn’t want to toss aside a career in industry so early.” One of the deciding factors that went into her decision was that she knew that the school, Archbishop Spalding High School, was a great place to teach and she wasn’t sure if this opportunity would arise again. 

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Cohort 28 Alumnus Derek Xiao Impresses Viewers on Big Brother

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Big Brother is watching you… or at least this was true for QUEST alum Derek Xiao this past summer during his experience on the national television show on CBS, Big Brother. Big Brother is a televised competition and reality television show based off of the concept in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, and the concept of “Big Brother.” Your average person is chosen to live in a house for a summer and participate in a variety of competitions to win power and advantages throughout the game, going through possible elimination as the show goes on. The house guests are constantly watched by “Big Brother” and under the decisions of the voice. There is a grand prize of $500,000 for the winner of the season. The game challenges people not only physically, but social skills are essential to winning the game.

Derek Xiao (Cohort 28)

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Keeping the QUEST Traditions Alive

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Just like any other family, the QUEST program has several traditions that are passed down from generation to generation (or in our case, from cohort to cohort). Although our traditions may not include baking, fishing, or twelve grapes, they do include every single staff member and student who comes into QUEST. 

Mark Nathanson (Cohort 20)’s 190H Team- QUESTimus Prime

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Cohort 1 Alumna Missy Grace Uses Her Resilience to Coach Cancer Survivors

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For Missy Grace, a QUEST alumna and member of Cohort 1, the transition from working in corporate to working in coaching just seemed like the right next step. A cancer survivor herself, she now partners with the company One Village and offers Vigeo Coaching services for cancer survivors.

Alumna Missy Grace

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QUEST Student and Alumna Team up after Capstone

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Creating a successful startup is no easy task, yet there are several QUEST alumni who have been able to solve problems they are passionate about by creating their own company. A couple examples include Kanchan Singh (Q17), who started a cat café in D.C. called Crumbs and Whiskers, Sahil Rahman (Q17), who co-founded Rasa, an Indian restaurant, and Allan Nicholas (Q20), who created a startup called Sweet Buds that sells scented earring backs that release perfume throughout the day. This article, however, will follow the story of Kajal Pancholi (Q7) and how her aerospace and systems engineering firm, Avatar Technologies, grew and eventually came back to QUEST.

Kajal Pancholi has stayed connected with QUEST even after her graduation. She had sponsored several QUEST Capstone projects through her previous employer, Millennium Engineering and Integration Company, but this time she decided to reach out to partner with QUEST so a team of 490H students could help Avatar Technologies become an ISO 9001 registered company. Kajal said she needed “bright, hardworking, and innovative individuals to augment [her] team and develop tailored quality management tools & techniques for the company’s operations,” and she believed it would be a perfect project for QUEST. Students Dennis Chen, Taylor Joyce, Julia Roh, and Devin Rosen from cohort 27 came together to implement an ISO 9001-compliant Quality Management System so that Avatar Technologies could gain a competitive advantage in its field.

One student on the team, Devin Rosen, really enjoyed working with Avatar Technologies during his time in 490H and consequently returned to Avatar for a summer internship. Devin learned many aspects of technology entrepreneurship and enjoyed his time learning about Avatar with his team and wanted to be able to continue helping Kajal make an impact by getting Avatar Technologies an ISO-9001 certificate. Devin said that there were several differences between working with his team and working with Kajal over the summer, and mentioned that “the biggest difference was going from a group project to an individual endeavor [he] could turn into [his] own.” He also said that he had to absorb a lot more information about the company and about ISO-9001 since his teammates weren’t there to bounce ideas off of over the summer, but that Kajal was a great help in guiding him and teaching him the ins and outs of the Avatar business.

Kajal and Devin represented Avatar Technologies at the QUEST Networking Event in September

Being a math major, Devin mentioned that he was able to utilize his critical thinking and problem solving skills when assessing Avatar’s regular business operations in order to optimize process interactions and design the Quality Management System itself. He wants to tell QUEST students that regardless of the project or the major, people will be appreciative of hard work. He mentioned, “QUEST students make significant impacts” in 490H, and that the class itself encourages students to ask as many questions as possible in order to filter ideas and uncover effective solutions. He also wants to emphasize that students are capable of learning more than they think. After being assigned to his 490H project, Devin said he “learned a lot about ISO-9001 quality management system and that it was nice to prove to [himself] that [he] can jump into something completely foreign, learn all about it, and come up with impactful recommendations.”

Kajal was very appreciative of the work that the team did during 490H and the work Devin did during his time at Avatar since now the quality management system is in place and that all there is left is to call an auditor to get Avatar Technologies certified. She said that there are many benefits working for a smaller scale company for the 490H project since the work students do create a very meaningful impact on a large scale. She also mentioned that “Working with the QUEST students and Devin was both professionally and personally rewarding,” since the project brought back memories of Kajal’s own QUEST experiences and she was able to “use that QUEST knowledge and lessons to be a better-engaged and more resourceful project champion for the student team.”