Category Archives: Student Spotlight

QUESTees Around the Globe: Study Abroad Reopens

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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!

Cohort 35’s Gabby Williams Empowers Black Women Leaders

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After graduating from college, many alumni want to help their alma mater by connecting current students to post-graduate opportunities. However, Cohort 35 student Gabby Williams is creating opportunities for fellow students while still in college herself. Williams is currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer of the HelpHer Foundation, whose mission is to empower Black women in the sports and technology industries. I was able to sit down with Gabby and learn a little more about her role at the HelpHer Foundation as well as how she balances HelpHer with being a highly involved college student. 

Cohort 35’s Gabby Williams

I was first curious about the origins of the HelpHer Foundation. Gabby explained that the idea of HelpHer was born in November 2020 during a conversation between Gabby, her sister Sydni, and her cousin Nacomi about the barriers Black women face breaking into industries such as sports and technology. All three agreed that these industries needed more representation of Black women, and more importantly, they wanted to take action to achieve this goal. To quote Williams, “We need Black womens’ voices in these spaces, and we need them to stay in these spaces!” 

The HelpHer Foundation Team

The HelpHer Foundation aims to increase the number of Black women in sports and technology through three main pillars: career development, community, and empowerment. To do so, they select a cohort of Black women every calendar year. Once admitted, HelpHer provides its students with resources such as resume reviews, mock interviews, and professional panels relevant to sports and technology. For example, HelpHer recently hosted a panel with two Black women professionals: one marketing analyst from the NBA and one university specialist from Google! Besides professional development, the HelpHer Foundation also provides a community of Black female leaders who are helping inspire one another to break down boundaries that women before them faced. “We want students to know that we got you, and the rest of the students got you as well,” explained Williams.

HelpHer’s Resume Review Panel Event

HelpHer’s first students were the result of hours of reaching out to personal connections and LinkedIn cold messaging. As a result, HelpHer now boasts 12 active students in their 2021 Cohort, and their 2022 Cohort applications are open now too! These women are from various colleges in the DMV area, but Williams hopes to eventually expand across the entire East Coast. Aside from student reach-out, as Chief Marketing Officer, Williams is specifically responsible for HelpHer’s website development and creating social media content for LinkedIn and Instagram. She meets with the team weekly and the three women lay out their agenda, previous weeks’ projects, and upcoming weeks’ tasks. With this level of organization, it’s easy to see how Williams fits right in on any QUEST team. 

HelpHer Foundation’s Services

When asked how she manages her role on this start-up and her life here at UMD, Williams stressed the importance of time management, passion, and saying no to opportunities. “It’s okay to not do everything under the sun,” explained Williams. “You should choose what you’re passionate about and really focus in on that. If you’re not passionate, when another opportunity comes along, you’ll want to pay more attention to that.” She also explained how the HelpHer Team aims to keep meetings to a minimum length. “We’re family, so it’s easy to want to chat for an entirety of a meeting, but we set five minutes at the beginning of a meeting to catch up. Then we use a Google Table, which is basically like a Gantt Chart, to prioritize what we’re working on that week. I credit QUEST for teaching me how to run a meeting like this – it has definitely saved me so much time in the long run!” Finally, when asked to give advice for any other fellow college students looking to start their own company, Willams highlighted leaning on your network. “What I’ve found is that nine times out of ten your network is there to help you. Utilize it!”  

The entire QUEST community is so proud of Williams and her team for the launch and continued success of The HelpHer Foundation! If you’d like to learn more about the foundation, you can check out their website here, their LinkedIn here, or their Instagram here. Additionally, if you identify as a Black woman interested in sports or technology, apply for the 2022 HelpHer Cohort here! 

Congratulations to QUEST’s December 2021 Graduates

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December is the peak of the holiday season and amongst the excitement, University of Maryland seniors are looking forward to the gift of winter graduation. This winter, QUEST is celebrating 12 talented and successful students who will be beginning their post-undergrad adventure. I spoke to 3 graduates who reflected on their experiences both in QUEST and as students at UMD.

Looking back on their years at the University of Maryland, our graduates shared their fond memories and challenging obstacles. Annabelle Baer of Cohort 32 will walk across the stage this week, receiving degrees in Computer Science and Finance. When asked about her most rewarding time in college, she responded that it was her last semester because she was able to “finally see [her]self being able to solve problems and think about concepts in both of [her] majors in new ways as a result of all the cumulative knowledge over the past four years.” Annabelle also recounted the joys of hosting potluck dinners with friends throughout her years and advises current students to avoid spreading themselves too thin with clubs as she did during her freshman year. When asked about which part of her college career was the most challenging, Annabelle explained that “it was honestly the first few Computer Science required courses. Even though they were intro-level courses, I had never taken Computer Science before and had to figure out an entirely new way to think about new problems. It is really cool looking back now on concepts that used to be so difficult to comprehend but are now second nature after working through the struggle!” Years later, this second nature will show as she begins her job working as a Software Engineer for Goldman Sachs in July. Congratulations, Annabelle! 

Annabelle Baer (Cohort 32)

Dillyn Payne, another Cohort 32 senior, recounts a different struggle: forming a routine and managing her time in the college environment: “Coming from high school, I did not know how to best manage my time or when to stop studying, so it took a while to adjust to this new environment.” However, this quickly changed as Dillyn learned to juggle multiple responsibilities, including QUEST, becoming the president of Theta Tau, and joining the Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Society, among others. When asked about her favorite memory from QUEST, Dillyn explained that her favorite memory was QUEST formal: “It was so much fun to hang out with everyone in Cohorts 31 and 32 for an evening outside of completing assignments together!” Outside of QUEST, Dillyn’s favorite college memory is when she studied abroad. “I went to Australia in January 2020, right before COVID started. It was amazing to travel to the other side of the world with a group of strangers and be immersed in another country. I enjoyed being independent and challenging myself to get outside of my comfort zone, and I look forward to doing it again in the future sometime soon!” Dillyn will soon get to experience this independence outside of her comfort zone as she begins her role at Northrop Grumman as an Associate Electrical Hardware Engineer in Baltimore. We wish you the best, Dillyn! 

Dillyn Payne (Cohort 32)

The last graduating senior I talked to was Cohort 33’s Varun Singhai. Varun is a Computer Science major who had applied to QUEST because of the “soft skills [he] knew [he’d] gain and wonderful people [he’d] meet.” Both of these held true as soon as he began BMGT 190H, where he recounted all of “the consistent late-night meetings [his] BMGT 190H team would go through and the collective struggle we all got to share!” Aside from class, Varun also explained that it was “valuable seeing the presentation and soft skills [he] learned from QUEST reflect well in [his] internships.” When asked if he could change anything in his college career, Varun recounted, “I wish I could join more organizations outside of school. I think I could have gotten more involved and made more friends as a result. I also advise all current QUEST students to make as many connections as they can and learn as much as they can from the projects; the skills you learn reflect well in the real world.” Varun will continue to have a chance to use these skills as he moves to New York City to work as a Software Engineer for Google. Congratulations, Varun! 

Varun Singhai (Cohort 33)

We would also like to congratulate our additional graduating seniors this winter: 

  • Mutaz Ahmed (Cohort 32), B.S. Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
  • Vivekjyoti Banerjee (Cohort 34), B.S. Computer Science and Mathematics
  • Aaron Kurtz (Cohort 33), B.S. Finance
  • Alyssa Miller (Cohort 32), B.S. Criminology & Criminal Justice
  • Srivats Narasimhan (Cohort 31), B.S. Computer Science and Finance
  • Don Omeili (Cohort 31), B.S. Electrical Engineering
  • Morelle Tchuindjo (Cohort 31), B.S. Mathematics
  • Siddharaj Vaghela (Cohort 34), B.S. Computer Science
  • Sapna Bagalkotkar (Cohort 33), B.S. Computer Science

The entire QUEST Community is so proud of our twelve graduating seniors and can’t wait to see all the big things you do post-graduation. Stay in touch, we’ll miss you! Congratulations! #theQUESTneverends

QUEST Highlights of the Back-In-Person Semester

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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! 

Cohort 34 Students Prepare for the Upcoming QUEST Conference

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Every semester, students in their final core course for the QUEST Honors Program work on a project with implications far beyond the classroom. The QUEST Capstone Professional Practicum, known by its course code 490H, enables students to add value to a corporate client by providing recommendations for organizational challenges. 

Cohort 34 prior to their Status 1 Presentations this semester

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Cohort 37’s Morelle Ndileba Turns Her Passion for Hairbraiding Into a Successful Business

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Ever love a hobby so much that you turn it into an occupation? Well, Morelle Ndileba did just that with her start-up hairstyling business RelleStylz. Morelle is a QUEST student from Cohort 37, double majoring in Information Systems and Operations Management and Business Analytics. On campus, she is also in the Academic Achievements Program (AAP), where she is an ambassador for incoming freshmen, and a resident assistant at the South Campus Commons. She especially loves working as an RA when planning floor events for her residents to relax and meet one another. Given her academic involvements, one might wonder how Morelle also finds the time to single-handedly run a successful hairstyling business, RelleStylz.

Morelle Ndileba (Cohort 37)

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Meet the 2021-2022 QUESTPress Staff

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A September in College Park means many things: football games, cooler weather, walks across campus, and my favorite part: new extracurricular opportunities! Six QUESTees took advantage of new opportunities this fall and decided to join our staff here at QUESTPress, and we couldn’t be more excited. For those of you who have never read a QUESTPress article, welcome! We’re happy to have you. QUESTPress is QUEST’s student-run publication released digitally once a month. We have a team of eight writers, who you’ll get to know below. 

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Seattle to San Antonio: QUEST Students Recap their Summers

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With QUEST being filled with such ambitious students, it’s no surprise to hear about the impressive and exciting summers its students have! Not only do students gain a variety of internship, research, or work experience, they also make sure to have fun. 

Michelle Lui (Cohort 34) interned at Discovery, Inc. as a data science intern working on the Food Network Kitchen app. This was her first experience working in the tech industry, whereas her internship last summer was in consulting. She said, “My favorite part was being able to work with consumer data and conduct behavioral analysis on app interactions. It was also so interesting seeing all the data that is collected and processed behind the scenes in order to make continuous improvements to the product.” Outside of her internship, she went on multiple short trips to new cities including Boston, Portland, New York City, and Ithaca to see friends from both high school and college. During her time in Seattle, she visited the Discovery, Inc. office in person, hung out with fellow interns that lived in the area, and even went to the QUEST meetup where she met someone from Cohort 1! In between, she caught up on some summer reading and says, “If you’re looking for recommendations, my favorites were Pachinko and The Namesake.”

Michelle strolling the streets of NYC this summer

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QUESTees Gear Up for Exciting Summer Internships

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With final exams and projects beginning to pile up, many QUESTees have begun daydreaming about the upcoming summer. Students make plans to take trips, spend time with family, and develop new skills and hobbies. Additionally, many QUEST students also use summer to gain professional experience in the form of a summer internship. With the large variety of students’ years, majors, and disciplines within the QUEST program, I wanted to learn about what kind of roles student interns would be taking on this summer. I was lucky enough to talk to a few QUESTees to learn more. 

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QUESTServes Plants Roots in Community

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The QUESTServes team stands with one of the trees they planted on Morrill Quad on April 23rd

With spring in full swing on UMD’s campus, we’ve been fortunate to resume some socially-distanced outdoor events to reunite our QUEST community. Student organization QUESTServes was recently able to host its first in-person event of the year – just in time for Earth Day! On Friday, April 23rd, QUESTServes partnered with the UMD Arboretum to help beautify the campus. I had the opportunity to take a break from Zoom classes, get some fresh air, and help out the QUESTServes team!

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