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PSL in hand, QUEST is Excited for these Fall Favorites!

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Welcome to the most wonderful time of the year!! The end of summer brings changing leaves, pumpkin pies, and sweater weather; however, for many hardworking QUEST students, this also means midterms, team projects, and job hunting is in full swing. The QUESTPress team has compiled some QUEST fall favorites in order to help you relax and enjoy the spooky season to its full potential. 

Things to Do 

College Park is a fantastic place to be during Halloween. There are tons of fun things to do on campus and in the local area that will make you not want to leave for Fall Break!

Scooby Doo Halloween GIF

Spice up your weekend trip to Washington D.C. and try a ghost tour! Only a short Metro Ride away, there are lots of services such as D.C. Ghosts that offer creepy ghost tours of downtown meant to entertain tourists groups of all ages. This is a spooky yet safe way to learn about our nation’s capital in a way they do not teach in textbooks – if you are up for the scare. 

However, no need to fear Halloween plans if horror is not your favorite. Luckily enough, Emmy Award-winning comedian, John Mulaney, is making a visit to campus on Oct. 30th! The QUESTPress team highly recommends going to see his show as a great way to share some light-hearted laughs with friends. Grab your tickets before they are gone! 

Hot Topics of Halloween

We asked for your opinion on a spicy Halloween controversy – the pumpkin spice latte (PSL). 

Psl Pumpkin Spice Latte GIF - Psl PumpkinSpiceLatte GIFs

An overwhelming majority of responses to the QUEST Lab poll reveal that QUEST is NOT the biggest fan of this “famous” drink. Results came in with 8 people deeming the PSL “Worth It” and a whopping 20 saying “Nah!” Madison Spiotta and some of her fellow Cohort 33 classmates chimed in that if given an option, they would always “rather have a chai.” Jessica Roffe, QUEST assistant director, admits to loving pumpkin, but “just not the spice.” Even the financials of the fall drink have fallen under scrutiny. Daniel Ben-Or, also of Cohort 33, proposes the question: “Why would I pay $5.00 for a latte when I could get a meal instead?”

An equally important, but surprisingly even less controversial topic, was crowning the best Halloween movie. Front runners clearly emerged from proposing this question in the QUEST Lab:

Hocus Pocus Film GIF

Hocus Pocus (1993) and Halloweentown (1998). These two classics led in popularity while a few outliers remained such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966). No matter which of these movies is your go-to, they all pair great with making cookies and eating candy with friends on Halloween! 

We hope you all stay busy and have a fantastic Halloween with your fellow QUESTees. Try a nice, hot pumpkin spice chai latte too! Happy Fall!

We’re Thankful for QUEST!

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Dear QUEST,

It’s the time of year to give thanks, and I am so grateful to be part of such a great program on campus (objectively, the best)! QUEST has come to be my family away from my own in every sense of the word. I am thankful for…

…the Quality Guild for ensuring that we can make the most of our time in the program by spending infinite amounts of time designing our courses and curriculum.

…the endless guidance from our amazing professors and faculty as well as the alumni. I’ve lost count of how many QUEST alumni have been willing to sit on the phone with me for boundless amounts of time and advise me, honestly keeping me from going down the rabbit hole of panic.

…the insights that have ultimately helped me redefine my career choices and allowed me to better understand my interests and aspirations.

…all of the friends I have gotten to make, friendships that I know will long outlive our time at UMD.

…learning how to think in ways that go beyond my major and that give me the ability to connect and work effectively with anyone.

…the alumni network for supporting us. Whether it be coming back to help us on various projects, working with us at many QUEST events, or even advocating for us for internships, all of your help shows how tightly knit QUEST is, and I cannot wait to support future cohorts the way you do for us.

…the QUEST student organizations that work so hard to grow QUEST beyond being just an academic program and helping us develop our connections socially amongst fellow QUESTees and with companies in preparation for successful careers.

…having no divide between faculty and students like in other programs; I know I can come with anxiety over a course or excitement over an internship and that QUEST can support me through it all.

…all the opportunities that I never would have had the chance to take part in or even hear about that have also opened up so many doors.

…everything and all things QUEST!

Here are just a few other QUEST students’ remarks that we wanted to share with you:

“QUEST has become and will always be a cornerstone in my life. It has opened up so many doors and opportunities, and I am forever grateful. Thank you Jess, Dr. Bailey, and Dr. Armstrong for being some of the brightest, most ambitious, and passionate people I have ever met. With love, Doron.” Doron Tadmor (Q29)

“I am grateful for the people in the QUEST community! Everyone in this program is passionate which is so inspiring! I can always count on the QUEST community to help guide me and love watching it grow!” Shivani Krishnamurthy (Q30)

“I am extremely grateful for meeting amazing people in the program! Whether they are in my major or not, I have built strong, long-lasting relationships that have elevated my experience in QUEST!” Noah Vernick (Q28)

“QUEST has introduced me to a plethora of astounding people, both student and faculty, that have both impressed me beyond belief and inspired me to work on amazing projects.” Jack Sturtevant (Q29)

“I am grateful that QUEST opened the door to so many opportunities to learn outside of my engineering curriculum and for all of the amazing people that I’ve met through it.” Tamara Lee (Q30)

“I’m grateful for the immense amount of time that the guild puts into QUEST that makes it such a great program. I’m also very thankful for the friends I’ve made along the way!” Michael Vetter (Q28)

“I love QUEST because the program gives me a space to be creative in a productive space where I am given the tools within systems design, product and process improvement and teamwork to see my ideas come to fruition” Hadas Elazar-Mittelman (Q30)

“QUEST has become like a family to me. Like I could go on a 15-hour road trip with any random three people, and we would have an amazing time.” Charles Grody (Q29)

“I’m grateful that the guild works so hard to constantly improve the program based on feedback. They teach us that this is crucial to success, and they work hard to practice what they preach.” Charlie Bond (Q27)

“QUEST has allowed me to put all of the knowledge I get from class into action and has allowed me to appreciate and understand team dynamics. QUEST has been life-changing already.” Aditi Balachandran (Q31)

“I’m most grateful for the tight-knit community in QUEST. Just being around so many kind and motivated people inspires me to do my best every day.” Akshay Guthal (Q28)

“QUEST has given me the opportunity to challenge myself in ways I didn’t know possible and push a community forward to greater achievements and horizons.” Barret Rus (Q30)

“I’m grateful for the sense of belonging that QUEST provides and cannot wait to start my journey in the spring!” Priscilla Lee (Q32)

“I’m very grateful for all the friends I’ve made through QUEST.” Jacob Wilkowsky (Q19)

“The real House of Quality is not the international diagram describing the overlap between customer desires and the firm capabilities, but the home that the Quality Guild has built within QUEST. I am so grateful for not only everything the Guild has taught me, but also the community they have built within the program!” Jacqueline Deprey (Q30)

“I’m grateful to QUEST for allowing me to meet a group of students and faculty that have helped me learn how to approach challenges- and to have fun with them! It’s so nice having a community of people who are so willing to help each other out!” Megha Reddy (Q27)

“I’m grateful for the interdisciplinary aspects of QUEST. There are so many things I wouldn’t have learned with my own major if it weren’t for QUEST.” Ankita Sahoo (Q30)

“It isn’t enough to say that QUEST was the best thing to happen to me in college. Thank you for the incredible courses, the mentorship, and the connections that have led to internships. But most importantly, thank you for the opportunity to build and create amongst a community of some of the smartest people I’ve ever known.” Sameera Polavarapu (Q27)

“I’m grateful for Dr. Bailey as he is an incredible source of wisdom, knowledge, and friendship.” Roger Mao (Q29)

“I am grateful for the QUEST community! I love being warmly welcomed into the new clubs like QUESTDev before I even began my QUEST classes!” Annabelle Baer (Q32)

“I am grateful for the passionate Quality Guild, who work tirelessly every single day to help QUEST Students succeed.” Dan Selzer (Q27)

Thank you QUEST, for playing such a huge role in my and my fellow peers’ journey at UMD! I cannot wait to see what the next year holds for the program and everyone involved. I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a joy-filled holiday season, as we approach the last stretch of the semester!

Sincerely,

Students of QUEST

P.S. We’d like to give a special shoutout to Dr. Bailey! Thank you so much for always extending your family’s table to us each year for Thanksgiving and really cherishing the meaning of the holiday!

 

 

QUEST Falls for Fall

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Grab a flannel shirt and carve a pumpkin because it’s finally time to bid farewell to humid summer days. That’s right, fall is finally here!

Whether they plan on hanging tiny ghosts on their door or baking pumpkin pie, there are ample reasons why QUEST students are ready to welcome fall!

CHILLY WEATHER

“I’m excited about the weather not being so warm,” said Shawna McCarter (Q31). “While hot summer days are fun, 90 degree weather isn’t optimal once you have to walk around campus every day. My roommate and I are counting down the days until we can finally turn off all four of our fans.”

FALL FASHION

Layering outfits in fall is the best because you can wear a denim jacket or boots without sweating, but you don’t have to wear a coat either. “I like when it gets cold, and I can wear jackets,” said Neil Duggal (Q31).

You can also wear fun fall colors such as orange, dark green, and maroon. Sasha Miller (Q29) said, “I’m excited to break out my fall colored sweaters and leggings.”

LEAVES!

The most beautiful part of autumn is when the leaves start to change. “I love the crisp air and the changing leaves. Crunching leaves is the best part,” said Quinn Wandalowski (Q31). “When I was a kid, I always loved jumping into a pile of leaves. It meant my dad had to rake the leaves all over again, but it was still fun!”

DECORATIONS

Whether it’s a mini pumpkin in someone’s window or decorations on dorm doors, it’s always fun when you start spotting the beginning of Halloween festivities. Dillyn Payne (Q32) started decorating as soon as possible. “On October 1st, I had already pulled my fall decorations out of my closet and hung everything up,” she said. “My grandmother also sends me a box of autumn decorations every year, so I was definitely excited about receiving that package in the mail.”

Anusha Dixit (Q31) also looked forward to decorating her suite with her roommates. “My suitemates and I started decorating our room with ghost name tags earlier in the month, and we plan to add lights and other spooky stuff!”

HAUNTED HOUSES

A unique aspect of spooky season is the haunted houses and other frightening attractions. I’ll be honest, every year I dread going to Legends of the Fog with my friends. For some reason, I’m always the only one in the group who’s terrified!  

Payne has a bit more courage than me, as she avidly plans to go to her first haunted house. She said, “I’ve never been before, but they sound exhilarating, especially if you were to go with a group of your friends. I’m not one to absolutely love scary movies and such, but one haunted house can’t hurt, right?”

HOLIDAY SEASON

As Halloween quickly approaches, QUEST students are already looking forward to the holidays that are just around the corner. Wandalowski said she’s already excited for Thanksgiving. “I like that the swing of holiday season is starting!”

Graham Schuckman (Q31) can’t wait to spend his favorite holiday with his family. “I’m already pumped for Thanksgiving break. I love Thanksgiving! I make pumpkin pies every year for my family.”

QUEST Students and Alumni Meet for a Night of Bowling

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By: Olivia Wolcott (Q30)

QUEST Corporate’s Bowling with Professionals Event took place on April 16th at Lucky Strike in DC.  The event consisted of casual networking between QUEST students and alumni in a fun environment. Alumni represented companies including Accenture, Applied Predictive Technologies (APT), Deloitte, UMD’s Division of Information Technology, Export-Import Bank of the United States, and Streetsense Consulting.

One alumnus stated, “I thought this was a great event. It was a fun way for alumni and students to connect, and it was based in DC which was very convenient for alumni!”

Students (including Olivia second to the left) enjoying their time bowling!

We encouraged casual conversation and didn’t have much of an agenda for the event. Of the students who responded to the feedback form, all selected that they were very satisfied with the event and added that their goal in attending was to both network with alumni and to increase interaction within the QUEST community.

Overall, it was a wonderful way for students and alumni to connect in a relaxed setting, and there was a great turnout of both students and alumni. We look forward to hosting more in the future!

Dr. Suarez’s Book featured in The Washington Post Bestseller’s List

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Recently, Professor J. Gerald Suarez was featured in the Washington Post Bestseller’s List for his book Leader of One.

In the era of “analytics,” Dr. Suarez reminds us of the wisdom in the maxim, Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts[1]. “How can we effectively measure passion, desire, or imagination?” he asks. These attributes may defy measurement, yet they are essential for influencing our future. Dr. Suarez’s maxims and “nuggets of wisdom,” made his book “Leader of One: Shaping Your Future through Imagination and Design,” a Washington Post bestseller.

The book offers a way to help readers transcend the present—its trappings and obstacles— and helps them create a vibrant and viable future. Creating a desired future requires that we guide our efforts through vision, values, constancy of purpose and consistency of action. Doing so is not easy, transformative efforts never are, and to help us take the first steps he introduces the cycle CONTEMPLATION-DESIRE-DESIGN-CREATION, as well as interactive idealized design, problem dissolution, the Physical-Logical-Emotional model, and non-linear thinking, among other systems thinking frameworks.

But most importantly, he has created a system to help students find their passion, nurture their purpose, and have the courage to imagine the future and take action in the present to pursue it. These enduring lessons have shaped and inspired QUEST students for over a decade… and as he says, “the student’s accomplishments have inspired me.”

 

Link to Washington Post Bestsellers List can be found here

Book link: Leader of One http://www.amazon.com/dp/1494401363

 

Video excepts from Leader of One
Get out of your career rut:   https://youtu.be/kDRvBDytts0

How to find your passion:   https://youtu.be/DLLkvIMeuMA

How to lead when you aren’t in a leadership position:   https://youtu.be/3vi-HerorwA

Keep an eye on the goal:  https://youtu.be/KfNWgQiYaAo

 

[1] This quote has been attributed to Einstein, William Bruce Cameron, Hillard Jason and others.

Goodbye and Good Luck to our QUESTPress Seniors

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Another year here at UMD is coming to a close and so naturally, we are losing some of our seniors to the real world. While we wish them the best, we also wish we had more time to learn from them and share more memories and laughs. With this said, QUESTPress would like to give a big sendoff to our seniors, Chineme Obiefune (Q25), Joe Piscitelli (Q25), Sam Weaver (Q26), and our Editor-in-Chief, Andrew Jones (Q26).

Andrew Jones (Q26)

Andrew is our great Editor-in Chief. He has been a part of QUESTPress for 3 years and has written numerous entertaining articles for the QUEST community. Additionally, Andrew has been involved in QUEST in other ways by being a  mentor for Q30 as well as attending not one, but two QUEST2 trips – to Silicon Valley and to Spain! Looking forward to the summer, Andrew will be traveling around the world (no exaggeration!). He’s going to be in Peru, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and then back to the US to be in New Orleans and Boston! After a busy summer, Andrew will be settling in Tysons Corner to begin work as an Associate Consultant at Appian Corporation.

While thinking about leaving UMD, Andrew will miss all of the experiences he’s had here and the opportunity to participate in so much. He said, “UMD offers so many activities. It can’t compare to any other institution!” QUEST gave Andrew a plethora of great things but what he’ll miss most are the abroad courses and meeting our amazing alumni! Andrew, we’ll miss your support and insights that you would give us at every Sunday meeting.

Chineme, our senior in Q25 has been in QUESTPress for two years but has also mentored 190H and helped out in the scoping class. This summer, Chineme is excited to be outside enjoying the weather but also hanging out with kids by volunteering at a summer camp. What’s really cool is that he’s going to also be working on his music (tune in everyone!!) to develop a skill that he is finally getting some free time to think about.

Chineme Obiefune (Q25)

QUEST is an intense community, full of people who are driven and passionate about what they are learning and Chineme appreciates and will miss it the most. Getting to see his team do amazingly in 190H yet still harness so much growth on the way to 490H was extremely rewarding, especially knowing that he “has had a slight hand in the success.” Chineme, we are going to miss your out of the box ideas for articles and fearlessness when it comes to trying and proposing new things.

Joe had an especially important position for not only QUESTPress but also the newsletter, in that he has been our webmaster and the genius behind figuring out any struggle with the online forums and making sure all of our articles and sites look great. Joe joined QUESTPress immediately after QUEST Camp after a now QUEST alumna, Grace Cha, suggested that people join. After school ends for Joe, he’ll be back in Miami with friends and family but his studying won’t be over as he will be preparing for the CPA exam prior to coming back to the DMV as a Core Assurance Associate for PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

Joe Piscitelli (Q25)

Looking back, Joe will mostly miss the amazing people that he has had the opportunity to meet through QUEST, Smith, and UMD as a whole. Joe says, “I came to UMD knowing absolutely no one else coming here so it was nice to have organizations on campus such as QUEST to make the campus smaller. I’ve met some of the best people I know at UMD.” Memories like simply walking into the QUEST lab to print and bumping into people you don’t expect to see and getting to catch up will stick with Joe for a while. He also loved to check out what new art our fellow QUEST students have up on the walls. Joe, we will miss your great sense of humor and endless help as we struggle through WordPress.

Sam has been in QUESTPress and writing articles for us since her sophomore year. After three years with us, Sam will be joining Lockheed Martin in Dallas. Sam has enjoyed her time with QUEST and says that she’ll miss all of the great events that QUEST has to offer. Being involved and getting to catch up with fellow QUEST peers are what she enjoyed most about QUEST. Sam’s favorite memory followed finally accomplishing the final client presentation in 490H. Her group had gotten through the toughest course for QUEST and to celebrate, Sam said, “My team and I went to Costco for lunch and just hung out and goofed off. Our client really loved our project and capping off that successful presentation with some pizza and ice cream was so satisfying.” Sam, we’ll miss having you over the conference call because you’re doing something cool like getting stuck at home baking bread.

Sam Weaver (Q26)

While we are sad to see you all go, we know you are onto bigger and better things. We look forward to hearing your names in articles not written by you, but rather about you. Thank you for your endless contributions to not only QUESTPress but QUEST as a whole. To you and all of the seniors moving on from our students to our alumni, keep us in mind. Come visit us and share your experiences with us or even let us know how we can be do better in our next QUEST presentation. I’ll leave you with a quote in the spirit of QUEST: “I begin with an idea, and then it becomes something else” – Pablo Picasso. QUEST has trained us to develop brilliant ideas and to take them as far as we can. Keep up the QUEST spirit and remain design thinkers regardless of where you end up because you all have great things to offer and thoughts to share. Best of luck class of 2018! You made it!

 

QUEST Students Study Design in Silicon Valley Over Spring Break

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Spring break means many fun trips for students in college, and for some of our QUEST students, it meant a trip to California’s Silicon Valley. On this trip, our students got to explore some Fortune 500 companies and startups to see how QUEST themes and ideals apply to them. The design thinking process was evident and a sense of innovation was ever-present.

Prior to going on the trip, students prepared informative dossiers on all the companies they would visit. Praneeth from Cohort 29 studied Redfin to study their design and development process which resembled that of many other Silicon Valley companies. He got to learn that “ideation starts with product managers and then goes through an iterative testing process to finalize specifications that are sent out to developers who build the product.”

QUEST students visited ABC7 news to get a behind the scenes look!

Students visited many companies in order to study their operational ways and to understand their design processes to see how they compare to one another. Students got to visit Uber, Autodesk, Facebook, Cisco, and Google to name just a few! One company they visited, Compology, was actually founded by QUEST alumnus, Jason Gates, from Cohort 16. The visit to Tesla was a popular one. QUEST students got to see the factory and ride the Model X. Jeff Zhao (Q28) enjoyed it, saying, “Going from 0-80 mph in less than 3 seconds is something that I will never forget.”

QUEST trips to various locations, such as our most recent trip to Silicon Valley, teach our students in a unique way outside of the classroom. They not only got to interact face-to-face with people that work for these companies, but they also got to see them in their work environment. A special part of the trip was that QUEST alumni were working at many of the locations visited and getting to see them give back to the program felt great and inspired Jeff Zhao to think about a future with the program beyond graduation. All of the alumni that our students got to talk to were keen on sharing career advice and the best places to go to in San Francisco.

With that said, being in Silicon Valley meant that there was exploring to be done. In their free time, QUEST students had a chance to explore the local areas and all the tourist attractions. Jack Sturtevant from Cohort 29 loved bonding with everyone in the evenings after the visits were completed. Praneeth liked sightseeing, especially when it came to seeing and experiencing things unique to San Francisco. While they were learning, students were also provided with the opportunity to get to know each other better and bond with students outside of their cohort.

Students completed a design activity at Facebook

The takeaways from this trip are endless. From the opportunity to network with many people leading and working for these great companies to forging new relationships, the QUEST students that went to Silicon Valley have brought back great experiences and stories to share with our community. Anyone that went on the trip would recommend it! Jack (Q29) was grateful that “the trip gave [him] great insight into the area of California and how different companies and life are out there. It gives you opportunities to make business connections outside of the DMV.”

Praneeth recommends the trip strongly and described it as “a unique opportunity that every QUEST student should take advantage of, if possible. We were able to get an inside look at companies that come up in every major news source on a daily basis. It’s an incomparable way to understand problems at a deeper level which ultimately helps you discover your passion. Whether that’s going behind the scenes of Tesla’s factory and watching the largest machine in North America press down on sheets of steel with enough force to be noticed on UC Berkeley’s seismograph or playing games in the arcade of Facebook’s headquarters while thinking about creative ways to connect people across the globe, it’s these unique environments that this trip gives you exposure to that helps you find your passion.”

QUEST students love the “QUEST2” trips. The adventure is unlike any other and getting to see different parts of the world while better understanding design is unmatched by any other trip. For more photos of the trip, click here! 

QUESTees at IDEO!

Introducing Our New Cohorts!

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QUEST Community, say hello to Cohorts 31 and 32! Cohorts 31 and 32, welcome to QUEST. It was just a couple days ago that the Quality Guild released the names of the ninety students admitted to our diverse, innovative, and challenging program, and we’re excited to introduce them to the rest of the community. I’ve reached out to four of our new members to learn more about what made them interested in QUEST, how they feel QUEST will impact their with future goals, and what other things they are involved with on campus.

When I asked about why the students were attracted to QUEST, one thing everyone had in common was that they were fascinated with the interdisciplinary aspect of the program and that they wished to expand their mindsets beyond those of their current majors. Amy Odenthal, a Clark student in Cohort 32, mentioned that she believes “working with students from three different schools will allow [her] to develop a more well-rounded perspective towards problem solving.” Uday Warier, a computer science major in Cohort 31, shared a similar standpoint and said that he “wants a way to work with people of different majors and skillsets.”

“Working with students from three different schools will allow me to develop a more well-rounded perspective towards problem solving.” -Amy Odenthal (Q32)

Many of the new students in Cohorts 31 and 32 have a strong presence on campus through various clubs and organizations, which is great since QUEST has such a strong focus on community. Involvement with the program outside of a classroom setting is a large part of what makes a QUEST student successful, so it’s great that our new additions are familiar with making a contribution to a community! Jeremy Rosenblatt from Cohort 31 is an engineer who represents the freshman class for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and manages consulting projects for TAMID, an organization that introduces students to consulting and then gives them opportunities to consult for Israeli start-ups. Jeremy says that managing the time he invests is “certainly a challenge, but [he finds] it really rewarding.” Dillyn Payne, an engineer in Cohort 32, stays busy by participating in Engineers Without Borders and Catholic Terps, doing financial planning for TerpThon, and interning at an electrical engineering company. Dillyn believes it is crucial for students to be involved in various activities since it “provides various opportunities for students to become better leaders and gain experience with how the world works outside of school.”

“[Involvement in extracurriculars] provides various opportunities for students to become better leaders and gain experience with how the world works outside of school.” -Dillyn Payne (Q32)

QUEST gives students the chance to engage with people from different backgrounds, provides opportunities for community involvement, and helps students navigate team dynamics and how the world around us works. But how does this help students in the real world after they graduate? Uday Warier says that “by becoming familiar with people from a variety of different backgrounds, it will be easier for [him] to create things that change the world and help the community through [his] career.” Jeremy Rosenblatt wishes to work in the biopharmaceutical industry and believes that “the interdisciplinary teamwork experience QUEST provides will be invaluable to [his] career” because “the industry is inherently interdisciplinary and runs entirely on scientific progress.” Amy Odenthal hopes to combine both technical and business concepts in her career and believes that QUEST will help her “learn more about the interdependence of the two fields.” Dillyn Payne wants to work for an organization that “challenges its employees to create innovative solutions to problems that may have many restrictions” and believes that QUEST will help her “become a better leader, critical thinker, and innovator,” all of which are necessary to succeed as an engineer!

“The interdisciplinary teamwork experience QUEST provides will be invaluable to my career.” -Jeremy Rosenblatt (Q31)

It was definitely refreshing to hear about the aspirations and goals these students have for their futures and how they believe QUEST will help them achieve them! Ambition is something that all QUEST students have in common, and the program’s goal is to help our ambitions become realities. My advice for the fellow cohorts is that it’s never too early to get involved. Make the most of your new community by getting swipe access for the lab, exploring our different student organizations, and staying up-to-date with our newsletters! You can have an impact even before you take your first QUEST class, so get on out there and make the rest of us proud.

Congrats to all of the new members of Cohorts 31 and 32!

Let the Creativity Flow: QUEST Creative’s Journey to Bring our Community Closer Together

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QUEST provides a lot of opportunities for student involvement. The program’s various clubs give students the chance to work with QUESTees across cohorts, get to know staff and faculty members outside of the classroom, and make great connections with alumni. The clubs provide great diversity in terms of what they offer, so whether you like to create functional web applications, write and publish stories, or even plan fun events and activities for students, there is a club for you. Currently QUEST has seven extracurricular clubs comprising of QUESTPress, QUEST Dev, QUEST Development Series, QUEST Corporate, QUEST Social, QUEST Recruiting, and the newest addition, QUEST Creative.

QUEST Creative was formerly called QUEST Marketing. QUEST Marketing’s primary job was to design and create posters and fliers for the Quality Guild and QUEST student organizations. Despite its success, the club wished to expand its scope in order to be more inclusive to other forms of art other than graphic design. QUEST Marketing was known for creating beautiful, artistic posters that grabbed attention and instilled awe, so the team members kept this in mind as they went about rebranding the club. The team members wanted the club to be known for its creativity, and in order to emphasize this trait, they changed the club’s name to QUEST Creative and made its ultimate goal to “expand and encourage creativity and the desire to create in all shapes and forms” (Ivy Xia, Q25).

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Each month, QUEST Creative follows a specific theme that gives them inspiration for what to teach their members during general body meetings and how to create events that cater to all QUEST members. This month’s theme is arts and crafts, and in honor of that, QUEST Creative’s first event was a paint night that took place on March 1st. Matthew Masison from Cohort 27, one of the students who led paint night, noted that the event was very successful. All spots were reserved well before the week of the event, and it was QUEST Creative’s first time bringing the QUEST community together on a large scale. Matthew saw that many of the attendees were from older cohorts (25, 26), and told me that QUEST Creative will market more to the newer cohorts (29, 30) as well. Next month’s theme will be on poster design, as QUEST students are preparing for their poster presentations in their 190H class.

QUEST Creative is off to a great start, and after speaking with Ivy Xia from Cohort 25, I learned a bit about what kind of measures the club is taking to ensure that their success is prolonged. Ivy mentioned that she and the team are working on ways to give their goal more structure in order to benefit the club’s members and the QUEST community as a whole. She also told me about how the club is beginning to prepare for its spring recruiting launch and that she hopes the large-scale events QUEST Creative will hold in the future will raise awareness of the club and attract prospective members.

As QUEST Marketing became QUEST Creative, its objective went from developing aesthetic projects for student organizations and designing merchandise for corporate partners to engaging the entire QUEST community to think creatively and bond over beauty. Now their general body meetings not only comprise of gaining skills in functional programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Adobe XD, but also learning about other forms of creation and preparing for community-wide events. If interested in attending these meetings, you’re in luck. QUEST Creative is looking for members who share the team’s passion for learning new skills and creating works of art in many different mediums. Their application can be found at ter.ps/joinqc, and if you have any questions, email qcreativeumd@gmail.com.

QUEST Visits Booz Allen Hamilton’s Innovation Center in DC

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Does your workspace have robots, an augmented reality (AR) system designed to help aerospace engineers, or non-hackable security systems? Sadly, mine does not, but Booz Allen Hamilton’s offices do!

On Monday, February 12th, QUEST students were invited to tour the Booz Allen office located in the heart of DC. Walking into the workspace, it looked like we were entering an urban tech hub. The workspace was HUGE and very interactive. Some rooms were set up so you could write on everything, the walls, tables, floors, etc. However, the majority of Booz Allen looked like one big room that allows for different consulting teams to collaborate and talk with one-another, maintaining a very fun but productive environment.

Students received tours of the center

So, what do they actually do at Booz Allen? Before I toured the office, I thought Booz Allen was just another consulting firm. Wow, was I wrong! While it is consulting, Booz Allen uses the newest innovative technology to help with everyday problems. For example, how do you train a military soldier to stay composed while approaching a battle, a navy sailor to know what it’s like underwater in a submarine, or an airman in the Airforce to remain calm when jumping out of a plane? Using a Virtual Reality (VR) system, Booz Allen has constructed software that allows people to know exactly what it feels like to perform these tasks. In addition, by adding sensors that stimulate other senses such as smell and touch, Booz Allen has constructed a way to trick the brain into thinking that the experience is real.

I got a chance to test out the VR system myself!

Have you ever felt sound? Soon enough, you may! Booz Allen has created a device that allows you to operate different devices by hovering your hand over a panel vibrating from sound. Imagine, instead of all those buttons on the dashboard of your car, there was just one panel. This panel, operated using sound, would allow you to control the heat, sound system, or even make a phone call!

At Booz Allen, I really learned that the future is not as far as we may think. Written on the wall of Booz Allen is a quote from Abraham Lincoln – very fitting for an office located in the heart of DC – and it says that “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” At Booz Allen, the technologies of the future are only days away.

QUEST alumni and students

Thanks to our Booz Allen alumni, Nicole Lach (Q22), Danny Laurence (Q19), Eric Hamel (Q19), and Andie Rauta (Q14), for hosting us and to the QUEST Corporate student committee for setting this up!