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QUEST Goes Behind the Scenes at PepsiCo

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This past February, QUEST Corporate planned an exciting site visit for QUEST students to PepsiCo’s Cheverly Bottling Plant. This was an incredible opportunity for the current sophomores and juniors in QUEST to take a tour of the production floor and get a glimpse of the inner-workings of a factory operation.

The QUEST team outside of PepsiCo’s Cheverly Bottling Plant

Upon arrival, QUEST students got to hear from a panel of production managers and quality control specialists about what it’s like to work at a production plant. Then, after a little bit of safety information, they were ready to put on some hair nets and venture onto the production floor! Students were able to witness and learn about how the different types of soda that PepsiCo sells are bottled and packaged. They also learned about all the flavors that PepsiCo offers and how they go into the drinks.

QUESTees suited up and ready to go to the production line!

Christopher Yeh, a sophomore Information Science and Supply Chain Management double major from Cohort 41 said, ”My favorite part of the site visit was being able to walk through the bottling production line! I’ve never seen anything like it and our guide took the time to explain how each section connected to the next. It was all super interesting.”

The site visit finished off with a Q and A session, which allowed students to gain more insight on the bottling process and PepsiCo’s Cheverly operations. It definitely sounded like a fun and informative site visit, so we want to give a huge thanks to QUEST Corporate and PepsiCo for organizing it!

Site Visits Add Value to Cohort 38’s Capstone Projects

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Currently, Cohort 38 is working its way through BMGT/ENES490H, the capstone course of the QUEST Program. Going on site visits is one of the best ways for teams to understand their clients and gain greater insights into the problem they are tasked with. I caught up with some of the 490H teams who have gone on site visits this semester to hear about what they’ve learned. 

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QUEST Serves: Giving Back

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QUEST Serves is one of the seven student-led organizations that is dedicated to provide QUEST students with opportunities to get involved outside of the classroom. They focus on getting students involved in their community, helping students to plan events internally with QUEST as well as get involved in other charitable events in the community. I was able to sit down and talk with Ryan Goodman (Cohort 36), one of the leads for QUEST Serves, to get caught up on everything that QUEST Serves has already done this year and the events that are still coming up.

Ryan Goodman is a senior studying Finance from just outside of Philadelphia. One of the first few things we were able to talk about when we sat down was about why he joined QUEST Serves in the first place. “Ryan [Gerbes] (Cohort 33) was my inspiration. He always had an amazing passion and an energy.” It was Gerbes who helped Goodman find his community within QUEST (outside of his cohort) by getting Ryan involved in QUEST Serves. Goodman also said, “It is just such a rewarding experience to have a way to give back to the school.”

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Meet the 2022-2023 QUESTPress Staff

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College Park falls bring everything from pumpkin spice lattes to football tailgates back to campus! We at QUESTPress are excited to be back in full swing and keep the community updated on all things QUEST! As a quick reminder, QUESTPress is QUEST’s student-run publication, released digitally once a month. This year, we are lucky to have a team of six extremely talented writers, who you can read a bit more about below!

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QUESTees Celebrate the End of A Successful Year

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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

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.

Farewell from the Editors-in-Chief

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Dear QUEST Community and QUESTPress readers, 

As we send out our last issue of the school year, we wanted to write a special farewell and thank you for serving as your QUESTPress co-leads. First, we wanted to thank our dedicated readers. While we enjoy sharing stories about the QUEST community, they don’t deliver impact without the curiosity and support from all of our readers. It warms our hearts when our stories spark conversation in our community. We also appreciate all of the QUESTees that have been featured or interviewed for an issue – your passions inspire us all! 

Tanu Kulkarni (left) and Heather Bacon (right)

Second, we wanted to thank our wonderful QUESTPress staff. This year, we took on an entirely new staff, and they were all so dedicated and willing to learn the second they joined our team. We’ve been proud to watch their writing skills grow as they develop their unique voices. They truly exemplify the qualities of compassion, creativity, and intellectual curiosity that we strive for in the QUEST community. Aside from the articles they write, our staff members have worked to establish a bond over the past year, making our meetings a breath of fresh air. We can’t wait to see how our staff continues to grow, especially under the leadership of our next co-leads, Sona Chudamani (Cohort 37) and Andrew Sien (Cohort 36)! Best of luck! 

We also want to thank our QUEST staff advisor, Jessica Roffe, for all of the support she’s given us this past year. Jess continuously serves as an ear for news within the QUEST community, looking to uplift the accomplishments of both students and alumni. In addition, Jess always makes sure we are putting out the most polished version of our issues by providing edits and suggestions, which is not always an easy task. We also want to thank QUEST’s Program Coordinator Rachel DiDonna for bringing together all of the student organizations’ leaders to ensure collaboration and share best practices. Lastly, we wanted to give a shoutout to the other student organization leaders – you’ve all been a pleasure to work with and we’ll miss you all! 

As our term comes to an end, we wanted to share some of our favorite QUESTPress memories and the impact they’ve had on us. 

Heather Bacon, Cohort 34: 

I joined QUESTPress in the fall of my junior year when Tanu convinced me by telling me how much fun it is. While I was hesitant to join as an upperclassman, the rest of the staff made me feel like I fit right in 🙂 One of my favorite QUESTPress memories was writing my first article about Cohort 12 alumna Amanda Nachman’s new book “Qualified” where she helps young adults realize their full potential and achieve their career goals. You can read the article here! As someone who felt lost about my career path at the time, I felt inspired by her journey and how she’s used that wisdom to help others. Over the years, I’ve found that interviewing alumni has been one of my favorite parts of QUESTPress – there is always so much you can learn through their experiences. In addition to the connections I’ve formed with alumni, bonding with the other student leaders has also been a highlight as a co-lead. I would always look forward to seeing all the student leaders at our monthly meeting. My favorite meeting was when we did a Trader Joe’s potluck!

Tanu Kulkarni, Cohort 34: 

I joined QUESTPress in the fall of my sophomore year before I had even taken the introductory QUEST course (BMGT/ENES190H) after meeting co-leads Celine Moarkech (Cohort 29) and Kara Eppel (Cohort 29) at the QUEST Student Involvement Fair. Though I had no prior writing experience, Celine and Kara had me writing articles off the bat, allowing me to quickly find the fun in writing. QUESTPress was my first taste of the QUEST Community, and I am so grateful for the relationships I’ve formed through it. I’ve interviewed many students, alumni, and faculty throughout my time, and many of these interviewees have become friendly faces who I still keep in touch with. I couldn’t imagine my time at UMD without this fun, creative outlet and the team I worked alongside. Thank you for everything, QUESTPress! 

Though this is our last issue, our chapter with QUESTPress is far from closed. We will always look fondly on the skills we gained and the relationships we formed. QUESTPress has never been a responsibility, but rather an outlet to express creativity and expand beyond our comfort zone. We hope that you all continue to remain curious and engaged within the QUEST community. We’ll miss you all. 

Lots of love, 

Tanu and Heather 

Tanu Kulkarni (left) and Heather Bacon (right)

Alumni Mentorship Program Off To A Strong Start In Year Two

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QUEST Corporate launched a brand new alumni mentorship program last year to overwhelming success. Now in its second iteration, the program pairs current QUEST students with QUEST alumni in a one-on-one mentoring relationship. 

“I LOVE Jess! We’re so similar and had a great first convo 🙂 Thank you for the pairing!” Jules Parra (Cohort 35) wrote in a feedback form after meeting with her new mentor, Jess Prom (Cohort 15), for the first time last month. When Parra and her mentor met, their relationship came so naturally, bonding over their career interests, QUEST experiences, and philanthropy. The hour that they scheduled went by before they knew it, and they were both ecstatic to see each other again. It is one of three meetings that they are required to conduct formally. However, based on their first two meetings, it sounds like this pair will have many more than that.

Jules Parra (Cohort 35)

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