It’s an exciting year for QUEST! This year marks the 30th anniversary of QUEST, formerly the IBM-Total Quality Program. This program was founded back in 1992 after winning a $1 million grant from IBM. Eight universities won the grant, but QUEST is the only program still in existence!
I had a chance to speak with Luke Muratore (Cohort 37), one of the QUEST students on the 30th anniversary planning committee to get more insight into what this celebration will entail.
One of QUEST’s biggest benefits is its robust and involved alumni community. This summer, QUEST alumni hosted happy hour events in cities like Baltimore, Seattle, Boston, Washington D.C., and New York City. These events were great opportunities for students to expand their network and alumni to reconnect with former cohort members. I spoke to two alumnae who planned their local happy hours to hear about their experience.
Despite the school year winding down, QUEST continued to host fun events for the community throughout April and May. Students from all cohorts united to attend the QUEST Formal, variety show, end-of-year celebration, and of course, the QUEST Conference.
The highly anticipated QUEST Formal was hosted on April 28th at The Hall, College Park. For many QUESTees, this was their first formal given the pandemic halting in-person events. The event was many months in the making and was spearheaded by the hard work of the QUEST Social team and the Quality Guild. Jess Yeager, a senior computer science major in Cohort 34, served as the QUEST Social co-lead this year. She explained that “though it was a lot of planning, seeing everyone come together and have fun made all of the work worth it.” Everyone in the QUEST community had a great time at QUEST Formal, eating delicious food, and taking pictures with QUEST teams, the Guild, and friends around the organization.
Cohort 34 posing for a group picture at QUEST Formal
Another awesome event hosted by the QUEST Creative team was the first annual, and highly successful, QUEST Variety Show. To organize the event, QUEST Creative co-leads Sarah D’Souza (Cohort 33) and Nakisa Rafiee (Cohort 34) reached out to different talented QUESTees with talents spanning speedcubing to musical performances. The event featured musical performances by Vivekjyoti Banerjee of Cohort 34, Mudit Mathur of Cohort 39, Bobby Chen of Cohort 37, Rae Wu of Cohort 37, and UMD Anokha (an a cappella group). Additionally, Amod Mathur of Cohort 33 showed off his Rubik’s cube skills while Sarah D’Souza of Cohort 33 and Ian Rosenthal of Cohort 36 displayed their gymnastics skills. Overall, D’Souza reflected, “It was so much fun putting on the variety show, and I hope others continue to put on the event because it’s a great way to learn from and celebrate the talent within the QUEST community.”
An additional event to wrap up the semester was QUEST’s end-of-year celebrations, which included the end-of-year pizza party and a sendoff for all of the seniors in Cohorts 33 and 34. At the end-of-year pizza party, all members of the community gathered to eat delicious catered pizza at Van Munching Hall and celebrate another great year for the program. At this ceremony, the Quality Guild presented seniors with their QUEST medals, a symbol of their completion of the program, as well as a number of awards to outstanding QUEST student leaders. Following the pizza party was the QUEST Senior Sendoff at Wunder Garten in Washington, D.C. Program Coordinator Rachel DiDonna and QUEST senior social representatives worked hard to organize an event to congratulate all of the seniors’ achievements and reminisce on great times in the program. Morgan Hoffman, a senior mechanical engineering major in Cohort 34, mentioned, “It was a lot of fun! Emilyn Hyre (a senior social representative from Cohort 34) organized a game where we had to guess if a QUEST pun was a real QUEST team name in our cohort or not,” and as such, the event was a great culmination to her QUEST career.
The final major event for the QUEST community was Cohort 35’s QUEST Conference. Nine teams presented their analysis, insights, and recommendations that they had generated for real-world clients for the QUEST capstone course, BMGT/ENES 490H. Some clients that QUESTees consulted for included Pinterest, Northrop Grumman, D&H Distributing, and Get Real Health. Team QUESTCare, which consulted for Get Real Health, won the awards for both Best Poster and Most Outstanding Capstone. I talked to Cohort 35’s Nick Bailey about his conference experience. He explained, “Before the QUEST conference, I was a little bit nervous, but once I got up on stage, I began to relax. I started joking around with my teammates while getting our jitters out right before we presented. Presenting itself was a total blur, but it was still a great time. I’m still so happy with my team’s work and proud of what we accomplished.” Cohort 35 student Jean Han added her own thoughts about BMGT/ENES 490H as a whole. “490H was challenging in the best ways, pushing me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn so much more beyond the classroom. I loved my 490H experience working with the most incredible team and client, and I am so proud of all of our diligent work during the semester!” Although Cohort 35 has completed their conference, we know that their journey with QUEST is far from over. Congratulations, Cohort 35!
Cohort 35 at the Spring 2022 QUEST Conference
In all, the QUEST community had a great few months to cap off the 2022-2023 school year. As Cohorts 33 and 34 graduate, and Cohorts 39 and 40 get ready to start, these incredible events are just a prospect of what is yet to come in the fall.
From February 25th to March 6th, the QUESTech student organization hosted its second Datathon, sponsored by Fifth Tribe, this time in-person. The prompt inspired students to analyze a COVID-19 dataset and present their unique findings to “inspire future action to help towards ending the pandemic.” While the week-long event occurred in February, co-leads Tania Arya and Amod Mathur began planning months in advance. Arya and Mathur are both seniors majoring in computer science from Cohort 33.
Since its beginning in 1992, the QUEST Honors Program has taken in 38 cohorts of students, providing tangible professional skills, friendships, and memories to last a lifetime. QUEST students have worked with 117 unique project sponsors on 276 different projects, using problem-solving skills to develop real-world solutions to complex challenges. This year, QUEST is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and there will be multiple ways to get involved in the celebration!
College is the land of countless new opportunities, and one of the most exciting is the opportunity to study abroad. With the ability to choose a program anywhere in the world, studying abroad offers a time to learn about your passion while meeting new people and exploring new cultures. This month, I talked to three QUEST students who are currently taking their studies global about their exciting experiences.
While studying abroad is an exciting point of any student’s years of college, it can be difficult to find a program that’s the right fit for you. Ethan Martinez, a computer science major in Cohort 36, is currently part of the UMD Exchange program to University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. He found the program using the Study Abroad Course Database, which helped him plan out what courses would give him credit. He also consulted friends who had also studied abroad there. Martinez wasn’t only focused on the academics; as an outdoor and history enthusiast, he was excited to see the Scottish Highlands and explore historical sights such as medieval castles. Alexa Schwab, a business management major in Cohort 36, is currently studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain as part of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona program. She found that utilizing UMD’s study abroad advisors helped her match up with a program that fit her goals. Schwab loved that Barcelona was a beach city, had many English speakers, and was easy to travel through the rest of Europe. When it comes to finding a study abroad program, utilizing university resources is vital for straightening out the logistics but picking a place that aligns with your personal travel interests should also be considered.
QUESTee Alexa Schwab with the Mona Lisa in Paris, France
Studying abroad is largely about expanding your horizons and learning about new cultures both personally and academically. Martinez has found his best times so far to be traveling in both Scotland and through Europe with his flatmates. Some of the highlights were visiting the Edinburgh castle where he learned about Scottish royalty, St. Margaret’s church which is over 1,000 years old, and Copenhagen where he saw the Rosenborg Slot. When not traveling, he enjoys hiking Arthur’s Seat and visiting Scottish pubs to meet other students and locals. Schwab has taken advantage of Spain’s location to visit several countries including France and Switzerland while also taking time to see many of Spain’s beautiful cities. One of her best memories was taking a chocolate making class in Switzerland. Rishi Parikh, an aerospace engineering major in Cohort 35, is studying at University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) in Madrid, Spain as part of the Clark in Madrid program. Parikh has spent his time in Madrid making new friends from all around Europe including Italy, Scotland, and Germany and trying different activities while abroad. Academically, he finds self motivation to be the key to success.
Copenhagen, Denmark taken by QUESTee Ethan Martinez
When it came to advice for future QUEST students looking to study abroad, the interviewees had plenty of helpful tips. Parikh advises stepping out of your comfort zone to make friends that are not just from English-speaking countries and even going random with roommates to meet people from all over. He is a strong supporter of keeping an open mind and taking the time to explore. Martinez agrees, explaining that meeting students outside of the US gives a fresh perspective. He also advises future study abroad students to make time for having fun as this experience won’t come again. Although studying abroad can sometimes seem like an intimidating and daunting process, with the use of plenty of resources, it can be one of the best times of our college career. It’s a wonderful time to actually discover yourself and see the world from a totally different view. Enjoy the rest of your semesters abroad!
Let’s start off by giving a HUGE round of applause to Cohort 34 for a wonderful conference last week! All of the posters and presentations were beautiful, and you could really see the hard work and dedication in every single one of them. For those of you who could not be in attendance, the bi-annual QUEST Conference was held in person, for the first time in over two years, at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center on December 9th. The Deans from the Smith School of Business and the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences were in attendance. Dean Amitabh Varshney even said a few inspiring words to all of the students. Darryll Pines, the President of the University, sent a heartfelt note to the cohort, wishing them “great success…in future opportunities” and expressed confidence “that [their] experiences in the QUEST Program will serve [them] well.”
Cohort 34 at the QUEST Conference
After nearly two years of virtual classes, team meetings, presentations, and posters sessions, QUESTees were thrilled to be back in person this semester. I polled a few QUESTees with the question: “What was YOUR favorite QUEST moment of the semester?” Stories ranged from QUEST Camp memories to the recent BMGT 490H Conference. Read students’ favorite QUEST memories from the semester below!
“Early this semester, QUEST Recruiting had a little Chipotle hang out for us to get to (finally!) see each other in person. It was definitely one of my favorite QUEST moments because I had been working on Zoom with these people for a year and was super excited to finally get to hang out with them in person and overall just have a good time!” – Ishaan Kapur, Cohort 36
“My favorite QUEST memory of the semester was going to the Firefly Music Festival with 6 other members of Q34! We rented a big campsite and spent the weekend seeing a bunch of our favorite artists. It was so much fun spending time outside of the QUEST curriculum, especially because I had the opportunity to bond with 2 other members of my BMGT 490H team” – Kevin Senkus, Cohort 34
Cohort 37 at QUEST Camp
“I really enjoyed getting to bond with my BMGT 190H team during QUEST camp. I remember we did an activity where we wrote our goals on pieces of paper and threw them across a field. We had to find creative ways to carry our teammates across the field to help them pick up their goals, and I think this really brought us together and helped us build a strong friendship within the team!” – Meghana Padmanabhan, Cohort 37
“Early in the semester, I was in the QUEST Lab between classes, and I noticed some Q36 students struggling on a homework for the data class. Since I was the previous TA for the class, I was able to help them out and answer their questions which was super rewarding!” – Amod Mathur, Cohort 33
Former BMGT 190H Group “OktoberQUEST,” now 490H Students, Reunited with Mentor Gina Wingate at the QUEST Conference
“My favorite QUEST moment from this semester was during the QUEST conference when my BMGT 190H mentor, Gina Wingate, came back to see us give our capstone presentations. It was particularly rewarding because most of my BMGT 490H team was also on my 190H team, so she could see how we’ve grown through the QUEST program between our rough Circular Design projects and now with our capstones. After she saw all of her mentees present, she gave us homemade gifts with our 190H team name on it. Overall, it was so rewarding to see her and reflect on how much she helped me over the years whether she knew it or not.” – Advaith Bantval, Cohort 34
“I loved presenting our first BMGT 190H presentations. It was rewarding to present what we had put so much hard work into and getting dressed in a suit is always fun :)” – Sami Bouhussein, Cohort 37
“One of my favorite QUEST memories from the semester actually happened about a month before the semester began. About 10 members of Q34 came and spent the weekend at my lake house! We definitely had a lot of cohort bonding swimming, kayaking and boating with lots of water gun fights in between. For sure a weekend of QUEST that I will never forget!” – Jessica Yeager, Cohort 34
“It has been amazing to come back to school and learn alongside all my mentors, friends, and role models. I am so grateful for the QUEST community.” – Aaliya Hussain, Cohort 35
Kayla with fellow QUESTees!
“I have two favorite QUEST moments. The first was experiencing my first QUEST Conference in person. It was a really amazing experience because I was able to see how all of the QUEST classes came together for the BMGT 490H presentations. I also really enjoyed getting to meet all of the other cohorts of QUEST at the conference. My second favorite memory was the many different relationship-building moments that I’ve had related to QUESTees in my life. I live with two QUESTees, and it was always fun to come back to my place to debrief what I learned in class. I also really enjoyed meeting and mentoring my QUEST little who I share a lot in common with!” – Kayla Malone, Cohort 36
What was your favorite QUEST moment of the semester? Let us know in the comments. The staff at QUESTPress hopes everyone had an enjoyable semester and wishes you all good luck on finals!
Regardless of how Maryland Football may be performing in a given season, you can always count on UMD students to wake up on Saturday morning and cheer on the Terps with their friends and families at a tailgate. This semester, QUEST Social was able to host its signature Student Alumni Tailgate for the Homecoming game on Saturday, October 30th. I caught up with QSocial lead and Cohort 34 Senior Jess Yeager to learn more about how the event went.
QUESTees enjoying the Homecoming tailgate!
Rock, paper, scissors. Improv. Boxed lunches. Pilot Products. All of these events over a two-day period can only mean one thing: It’s QUEST Camp season! After two semesters of a completely virtual experience, Cohort 37 was able to enjoy a semi-normal orientation, welcoming them into the world of QUEST. This year, QUEST Camp was held right here on campus, where students got to enjoy some typical camp favorites, while also trying some new activities. I, too, attended camp this semester as a 190H TA and seeing team bonding firsthand made me reminiscent of my own QUEST Camp experience.
Cohort 37 at QUEST Camp