With an abundance of homework and exams, spring break was a nice time for everyone to rest and recharge. For some, that included going on trips, ranging from the beach to another country!
Category Archives: Student Stories
Exploring QUESTees Passions Outside of the Classroom
It’s known that QUESTees tend to excel in their fields of study through the realms of business, engineering, the sciences, and more. However, outside of the academic environment, many QUEST students explore their passions through pursuing their respective hobbies of service, sport, and intellectual curiosity. This month, I was able to speak with two current QUESTees who are excelling in their respective fields of sport and service.
QUESTees Around the Globe: Study Abroad Reopens
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
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!
Cohort 37’s Morelle Ndileba Turns Her Passion for Hairbraiding Into a Successful Business
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)
Seattle to San Antonio: QUEST Students Recap their Summers
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
QUESTServes Plants Roots in Community
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!
Sending off our Spring 2021 Seniors
It’s May in College Park yet again, which means it’s time for QUEST to say goodbye to a couple of cohorts of amazing seniors. Senior year has looked different than we had expected, but QUEST is proud of our seniors for crossing the finish line! I had the opportunity to speak with some of my fellow classmates about their plans after graduation and reminisce about our time in QUEST!
Priscilla (top) with the team of Cohort 33 students she mentored at QUEST Camp in August 2019
Priscilla Lee (Cohort 32) will be finishing her Masters in bioengineering at UMD in the fall and then starting at Accenture Federal Services this winter! What she will miss the most about QUEST is seeing QUEST members around campus! “Everyone’s so involved and it’s so nice seeing people around (or in Zoom rooms). I will miss being part of the undergraduate community but hope to stay a part of the alumni community in the future.”
Priscilla’s favorite QUEST memory: “Gathering in the QUEST lab before classes! There was usually free food laying around to snack on, and it was so nice talking to members of all cohorts, even if it was only for a few minutes!” Continue reading
QUEST Social Fosters Community with Masquerade Picnic
QUEST students with Dr. Bailey at the QUESTSocial Masquerade Picnic on April 24th
In addition to the professional and academic opportunities, one of the great things about QUEST is the community aspect. The Masquerade Picnic, hosted by QUESTSocial, gave many students the opportunity to reconnect with people they hadn’t seen in over a year!
Snider Consulting Group’s “QUEST” to Strengthen UMD Clubs
Cohort 34 member Joe Houghton (right) with his Maryland Impact Project Team from Snider Consulting Group.
There are over 800 clubs at the University of Maryland, and a new student consulting group filled with QUESTees is determined to help them! Snider Consulting Group (SCG) uses skills in process improvement, marketing, and research to support their clients: the student clubs of UMD. I had the opportunity to speak with a few QUEST students involved in this exciting new organization that helps support the campus community.