Rou Tzamaras and Andrew Jones (Q26) attend Forbes Under 30 Summit

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Rou Tzamaras (senior, mechanical engineering major, international engineering minor, Q26) and Andrew Jones (senior, aerospace engineering major, Q26) both had the recent pleasure of being invited to attend the Forbes Under 30 Summit as U30 Scholars. This was a 4-day event held in the heart of Boston, MA, and it brought together students, young entrepreneurs, innovators, corporate sponsors, and celebrities such as Kendrick Lamar and former Apple CEO John Sculley. Recently, I had the chance to catch up with both of them to ask them to reflect on their experiences and insights from the event.

I know you were recently at the Forbes Under 30 Conference so what was your favorite part of the whole event?

Rou: My favorite part was the area called the under 30 village where everyone could go and hangout. They had multiple tracks, but if there were no events going on during your track session, you could just go and hangout there. That’s where they had speakers and different networking opportunities.

Andrew: I think the event was interesting because it was spread throughout Boston and over the course of 4 days, so there was a lot of freedom to choose where you wanted to go.

There was a hub called the “village” which had a mainstage set up for companies such as Fidelity, Microsoft, and Samsung to host booths where you could visit, learn more about the companies, and network. There was also another tent with different types of startups in multiple fields such as medicine, technology, and others. There was even a stage for entrepreneurs to talk and host roundtables too.

I was on the tech track with two sessions and different speakers ranging from CEOs of companies like One Plus to actors like T.J. Miller and engineers from Reddit and Bumble. I loved that there was so much for you to pick and choose from.

Which speaker was your favorite and why?

Rou: I was on the create track which was all about branding yourself, making your image, and creating cool things with an impact on society. During this time, TJ Miller from Silicon Valley came to talk to us and he was not only hilarious, but also very candid. He spoke about what you need to do to follow what you want and the advice that he left us with was, “Make your own meaning, work for a reason, and work harder than anybody else.”

Andrew: I listened to Saket Modi, an ethical hacker and CEO of Lucideus Tech, talk about the recent wave of data hacks. He discussed how easy it was to get access to people’s information and even hacked into a person’s phone in the audience after they handed it to him for about 10 seconds. He pulled out his laptop and projected all their contact information, texting history, audio, and location information as well.

This was so eye opening to me because I had no idea how easy it was to do something like that. It became especially interesting once I realized how many people use their phone numbers as a secondary authentication service for Facebook, Gmail, and other social networks. I’m studying aerospace engineering, and I don’t do too much coding, but it was cool to see how much you can infiltrate a person’s life despite all the measures of security we have in place.

From your perspective, why do you think an event like Forbes Under 30 is so significant when it comes to bridging the gaps between young people and older people who are more established in the industry?

Rou: I met a lot of people in a lot of different startups, and I think it’s important for people who have been in the industry for a long time to see the types of things that younger people can come up with. I also think it’s important for younger people to talk to the people who have been in industry to see how they got to where they are and what kind of path they should follow.

What if anything would you say you learned after being at the conference?

Andrew: I would say I learned how to feel more confident in my progress and comfortable with my pace. I felt reinvigorated after seeing everybody doing their own thing. I concluded that if you keep pushing forward, doing your own thing, and staying humble then you’ll eventually see the returns from those efforts. We had big CEOs and then people from obscure startups talking about their success and failures and it was all incredibly inspirational.

After being at the event and learning what you learned, how do you feel the conference impacted your thoughts about what you want to do with your career and your life moving forward?

Rou: I went to the create stage because it was something different from engineering. I have always been interested in media and content creation, but the biggest thing for me is having a platform that I can use to speak on things that matter to me.

Looking for a job has been stressful, and I feel like I’ve been thinking too much about what location is the best, what’s going to pay the most, and what’s going to look the best, but not what’s going to help me make the greatest impact possible. I want to do something where I feel like my work is helping people. I want to make a personal impact, and this conference drove home how important that is for me.

Do you still think you want to focus on the engineering side of things, or do you want to make an impact in another field of study?

Rou: That’s TBD, but I’m applying to a lot of engineering and non-technical roles so we’ll see how things turn out. When it comes down to it, if I take an engineering role, I hope to supplement that time with meaningful activities on the side by volunteering and doing pro bono work. If I take a nontechnical role such as consulting, those tend to have these opportunities built in so I hope to utilize those opportunities and make an impact there. Regardless of where I go, this conference showed me that I want to be a change maker. Whether it’s in a technical or non-technical role, I want to be a mover and a shaker than can make a lasting impact.

Andrew: During the past few months, I’ve been going back and forth between consulting and engineering, but I’ve always wanted to do something service related like AmeriCorps or Princeton in Asia. I’ve been talking to my parents and various other people, but being at the event made me even more confident about pursuing what I want to pursue and doing what I want to do. For some people, there’s a rush to go corporate and climb up the ladder, but for me, I’ve realized that I want to do something more service-oriented before going into corporate. After attending the Under 30 conference, I feel even more energized to move towards that.

 

QUEST’s 25th Anniversary Gala – A Night to Remember

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QUEST celebrated 25 years of continuous improvement with over 420 alumni, current students, parents, corporate partners, and UMD friends on October 7, 2017! Jacob King (Q27) provides his account of the evening below.

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Walking into the grand new lobby of The Hotel at the University of Maryland, we were ushered upstairs to the ballroom level where we were immediately enveloped into a different time era. It seemed as though we were thrust back 60 years as all the males were dressed to the nines and women were in dresses to the floor, taking stunning pictures off the balcony overlooking the valet. Overhead were enormous twinkling glass structures that added to the ambiance as we walked into the ballroom itself. As I grabbed myself a drink from the bar, I looked around at all the fabulous people around me, all the brilliant QUEST students and alumni dressed up to celebrate the anniversary of this wondrous organization that brought us together. I began to walk around to catch up with old friends who had graduated, and I was astounded to see the turnout of not only current cohort members from 25-30, but members of cohorts from the very beginning. I was even introduced to people from cohorts 5,13,18,19 and 20.

It is one thing to network and make acquaintances, but it is another to talk to QUEST alumni about your story and how your time in QUEST is benefiting you. The cocktail hour quickly elapsed, and as we sat down for the main event, we had no idea just how humbling and inspiring our speakers were about to be. With our emcee, the chairman of the QUEST Alumni Board, Mr. Ricky Wilson, the night kicked off without a hitch. While it makes sense to have the three deans represented from the three schools (business, engineering and computer, mathematical, and natural sciences), the speeches they delivered were completely awe-inspiring as they praised not only the program, but told stories of how QUEST has helped shape the best students within their schools.

Corporate partners were recognized for giving back to QUEST over the years. Leidos, IBM, and Orbital ATK were announced as Corporate Visionaries; Lockheed Martin was recognized as a Corporate Innovator; and BD, dlhBowles, Pwc, Unilever, and Tulkoff Food Products were recognized as Corporate Catalysts.

Jerry Goodman and ToniAnn Thomas from IBM then went on stage to announce the winners of the IBM Design Challenge. Team International Business Men took home the grand prize, a trip to the IBM Global Headquarters in NYC. Team members included: Conor Casey (Q27), Tim Chen (Q28), Cameron Harner (Q25), Varun Mohan (Q28), and Jeff Zhao (Q28). To learn more about the IBM Design Challenge, click here.

It soon came time to recognize the alumni from QUEST who strove to push past the normal call to action that comes with graduating from this honors program. To Jason Gates (Q16), who pushed the original 190H course to its fullest extent and sought innovation through his own career, the QUEST program awarded the Innovative Professional Achievement Award. For the individual who has helped QUEST increase its corporate visibility, the program awarded Steve Kutchi (Q1) with the Outstanding Corporate Connector Award. Presented next was the Outstanding Service Award to Danny Laurence (Q19), Bryan Towns (Q7) and Ricky Wilson (Q6) for giving back to the program. For early career achievements, the Outstanding Young Alumna/us Award went to Linda Rassenti (Q17).

Winners of the Alumni Awards and the presenters

Next, three alumni, Debbie Feinberg (Q1), Vlad Tchompalov (Q14), and Addrenia Smith (Q18), provided remarks on their time in the program. As those in the audience listened to the stories of these alumni and their seemingly unachievable success or commitment to the program, one could see the passion start to bubble and the gears start to turn as current students tried to devise ways to achieve these same heights. As I started to leave the event, I turned around and looked at those around me: the alumni who are following their dreams and the students who are building passions and elevating themselves to get there. That is the beauty of QUEST. It is not in the rigorous coursework or the extracurricular activities or even the prestigious faculty (no matter what Dr. Suarez says). The people are what make QUEST great- the congregation of like-minded scholars who are hungry to learn and vicious in the classroom, yet collaborative and intuitive, with a drive to push those around them to new heights. This positive feedback loop of each QUESTee helping one another and giving back has led to the placement and growth of hundreds of alumni, with many more to come.

Here’s to the first 25 years of QUEST, and another 25 or more of great students, faculty, alumni, and corporate partners! To check out more photos from the Gala, click on this link!

Alumnus Catch-Up: Bryan Towns

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Being in college, the idea of one day being an alum of the University of Maryland seems far into the distance. While it’s something we talk about often, it isn’t something we are ever prepared for when it finally arrives. With this said, our greatest hope is that when the time finally comes, we can take what we learned from our classes and experiences and apply them to the real world.

I recently reached out to Bryan Towns, a QUEST Cohort 7 alumnus that graduated in 2002 from the Clark School with a degree in Chemical Engineering. I got to learn about his work for Abbott Laboratories and how QUEST not only helped him attain his first job but has since also helped guide him with the special and unique skill set it gave to him.

Where do you work and what exactly do you do there?

I am Director of Program Management at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago. In that role, I lead the product development efforts for one of Abbott’s diagnostic divisions. The product that we are developing is a really cool automated instrument that isolates and identifies DNA and RNA to enable hospitals to diagnose a larger number of infectious diseases with higher accuracy and faster than is otherwise possible today.

How did QUEST help you in getting your job?

I still remember the specific interview question that landed me my first job out of Maryland! In a dual-sided panel interview (multiple interviewers asking the same question of multiple candidates), we were asked how to bring a team with differing views/interests to a consensus decision. I described the Pugh decision matrix that we had used across my three years in QUEST. After landing the job, I was told that response helped to set me apart by demonstrating the systematic thinking and team building skills that QUEST instills and are in demand across all industries back in 2002 through today.

Bryan received one of the Outstanding Service Awards at QUEST’s 25th Anniversary Gala

If you could do things differently, what would you do?

I wish that I had become more involved at UMD and QUEST earlier in my career. I have become very involved in recruiting, sponsoring QUEST projects, and participating in the QUEST Alumni Board over the past 5-7 years, and I seem to learn something new and useful every time I am back on campus. Had I engaged in QUEST a decade earlier, I would have been able to apply those lessons earlier in my career.

What words of wisdom do you have for current QUEST students?

While being a jack-of-all-trades was once valued in industry, a much greater emphasis is put on depth and expertise in a specific field these days. Whatever your major, identify a field that you anticipate being valuable (for example, cybersecurity, government relations, and risk management are fields that are getting a lot of attention right now) and start building expertise in it while in school. Continue building and refining that expertise early in your career and you’ll be amazed by how many options will be made available for you.

The Alumni Network – How YOU Can Make The Most of It!

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The involvement of a QUEST student doesn’t end after graduation. In fact, one of QUEST’s greatest assets is its vast alumni network. There are numerous ways for QUEST students to remain involved with the program after graduation. In fact, even within the QUESTPress community, alumnus Jacob Wilkowsky from cohort 19 continues to stay involved as our alumni advisor. QUEST also provides many other means of staying in contact with the program after graduation. Of these include joining the QUEST Alumni Board, getting involved in classes, and attending various alumni events around the country like happy hours and trivia nights.

One amazing way for QUEST alums to stay connected is through the QUEST Alumni Board (QAB). The 2017 Alumni Board Executive team comprises of Ricky Wilson (Q6), Josh Kohn (Q18), Karthik Menta (Q18), and Shirley Han (Q19) who are Chairman, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, respectively. There are 22 alumni altogether on the board, and they are all responsible for hosting alumni events and staying connected to our program in various ways. If interested in getting involved, contact Ricky Wilson at Richard.Wilson@constellation.com.

Members of the QUEST Alumni Board at a recent QUEST Conference

Even students currently in the QUEST program have the chance to connect with our great alumni. Alumni visit classes and mentor students in various capacities. QUEST also hosts various events where students can build relationships with alumni. QUEST’s recent 25th Anniversary Gala was one instance where current students and alumni had the opportunity to meet and connect with each other.

QUEST has an intensive database that catalogs all current and past members of the program. This alumni database allows you to search for alumni based off of factors such as their majors and what companies they are currently with. Emails are also provided, so this is a great way to reach out to alumni who you think would be able to give you advice on the culture of a specific company or just what to keep in mind for as you pursue your major. Feel free to browse the database and make lifelong professional connections. Members of the QUEST community support each other. To access the database, contact Jessica Macklin at jmacklin@rhsmith.umd.edu.

Be sure to check out QUESTPress’s Alumni Spotlight articles. Students interview alumni and learn about how they managed to get to their positions, how QUEST helped them achieve what they have so far, and what input they want to give to the rest of the QUEST community.

Once students are accepted into QUEST, they are exposed to a diverse environment and are encouraged to get out of their comfort zones. As time goes on, those students begin to characterize QUEST culture by focusing on quality, professionalism, and teamwork in their lives. These qualities don’t end after graduation, and these values that we get from the program allow us to relate to and connect with members across all cohorts. I encourage current students to use our extensive network of alumni and see what they can learn, and I invite alumni to stay connected with our community by visiting our various events and social functions. To learn more about ways to get involved, visit our website.

5 Things to “Fall” Into the New Season For

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Leaves are changing colors from a dark green to a deep burgundy, pinecones are falling from trees, and pumpkins are popping up on doorsteps. Yes, it’s that time of year again, FALL!

As a college student whose main transportation around campus is walking, fall has become my favorite season. During the summer, I can’t step outside without sweating, and in the winter, I layer on one hat, two pairs of pants, and three jackets and still can’t get warm. Fall is perfect in the sense that I don’t overheat the minute I step outside, but I also don’t feel the need to cling onto my coat while anticipating my walk to class.

So, why does QUEST love fall?

Pumpkin EVERYTHING

Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup. “I love everything pumpkin,” says David Rosenstein (Q29). I must say, I agree. You also can’t forget about pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving, and my personal favorite, pumpkin seeds! Even Charlie Brown eagerly awaits for fall so he can see the Great Pumpkin!

Halloween

“I really like Halloween, it’s my favorite holiday,” says Jack Startuvent (Q29). “I love carving pumpkins, watching Halloween movies, and eating candy corn. I can’t wait to dress up with my 190H group for Halloween!”

I’ve got to say, for me the best part of Halloween is the movies. All year, I look forward to binging Thirteen Nights of Halloween on ABC Family! I love watching every single movie, especially Hocus Pocus.

Sports Season

“Fall is the beginning of a new sports season,” says Adam Hostetter (Q29). “I like that Hockey season finally starts again.”

For sports fans, fall also means the start of football season! At the University of Maryland, the common argument is whether you’re rooting for the Ravens or the Redskins? I’ll be honest, I’m a Baltimore Ravens fan through and through.

Fall Fashion

Fall also introduces a whole new mix of clothes into our everyday style! “I like that I get to wear big, cozy sweaters,” says Zach Azrael (Q27). In my town, you know it’s fall when everyone is walking around in their plaid shirts and Timberland boots. However, if that’s not your style, you can choose from “bombers and denim and raincoats and wool and sportcoats and cardigans,”says Brian Yuwen (Q28). “And scarves. Can’t forget scarves.”

QUEST Loves Fall

Whether you like the season because it’s the start of football or because it’s the end of the hot summer, I think we can all agree that everyone loves fall. So bundle up into your cutest sweater and grab a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, it’s time to get ready for my favorite season, fall!

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely “falling backwards”  from excitement!

 

Student Spotlight: Didac Hormiga & “Flee”

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Didac with his new App, Flee

 

Didac Hormiga is a junior in the QUEST Program (Q28), and he’s been working on his startup “Flee” for the past year! The work he’s done has allowed him to connect people in his community and push the event finding platform to the next level. Click below to learn more about his experience, and follow these links to download the app!

iPhone/IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flee-find-local-events/id1207597483?mt=8

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flee.flee

 

What is Flee, and what value do you believe you provide your users?

Flee stands for “Find Local Events and Entertainment,” and we do just that. I started working on it during my sophomore year because I felt like I didn’t know what events were going on. It seemed like I was finding out about a lot of things after they had happened so regarding our value, I believe we’re expediting the event finding process and making it more social. We aim to help people find out where their friends are, where their friends are going, and determine the atmosphere before they arrive.

 

What’s contained in the latest update of Flee?

The big update adds a lot of different things to the experience. The main aspect of the update is the addition of a “Connect with Facebook” button that will allow users to connect their Flee accounts with Facebook and see which friends are on the app. When we first launched the app, we found that a lot of people couldn’t find their friends on the app. We had a native log-in so people had to search for friends by username which made the process a lot more difficult. This button should make the process easier and improve connections within the app.

We’ve also improved things on the back end and made changes to allow the app to run faster and smoother. The database and security have also been improved along with additions to the social experience. We added likes and comments on events and stories to allow people to interact with stories to improve the way users interact with each other on the app.

 

What were the things that went through your mind when making the decision to connect your app with Facebook?

There were a lot of strategic factors that went into the decision-making process. Choosing Facebook could lead to a lot of complications in our app, but after thinking about the future of our app, we determined it was worth the risk.

One big issue we foresaw was that our users would assume all Facebook events were present on Flee. Another issue was centered around the technical aspects of our product. By using Facebook’s API, we’ve connected ourselves to the company so if they make a change that could potentially hurt our app.

Initially, we tried to avoid the Facebook connection, but after hearing feedback from our users regarding the difficulties finding friends, we thought it made sense for us to work with Facebook and give our users the ability to gain more from the app and better connect with each other.

 

Where do you see the app moving forward?

The goal for Flee has always been to connect people to their communities. Regarding our next steps, it’s all going to be in the realm of facilitating the event finding process and improving the connections within communities.

 

What’s the biggest mistake you think you’ve made in the creation of Flee?

It’s been a long journey filled with many ups and downs, but I would say one of the bigger downs was when I connected my personal debit card to AWS instead of my business credit card. This resulted in a $10,000-dollar charge being placed on my personal card which was a hassle to get straightened out. Something I’ve learned is that anytime you’re signing a contract, or doing anything with your product, you must be detail oriented and make sure that you properly understand the terms of any agreement and its implications.

 

What’s been the greatest success you’ve seen so far? What’s the greatest success you hope to see?

The greatest success has been seeing my friends find events on Flee that they weren’t aware of, inviting their friends, and going to these events. It’s been a long journey to get to this point so it’s rewarding to see that type of support from my community.

In the future, I’d like to see growth and aim to impact more people around the country and around the globe. Right now, we’re pretty event focused, but I feel that in the future we’ll be able to broaden that focus and help people be more connected with their communities in all aspects of life.

 

Student Spotlight: Ishaan Parikh & His KPCB Summer Experience

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Last semester, we interviewed QUEST student Ishaan Parikh (Q28) before he left for the KPCB Design Engineering Fellows program this summer. It’s a very selective program that offers its participants a valuable opportunity to engage with the culture of Silicon Valley. Learn more about his experience below!

 

What exactly were you doing over the summer?

There were 2 aspects to my summer internship in Silicon Valley. First, was being a software engineer at Indiegogo. I was doing full stack web development for them, working primarily on their back end with some front-end work added in as well.

 

The other side of my summer was the KPCB experience that I shared with the 79 other fellows. We attended talks led by people like John Doerr (a partner at KPCB) and Mary Meeker (a partner at KPCB) along with other CEOs from the KPCB portfolio companies. Outside of the professional sphere, I was also able to develop close relationships with the people in my cohort. We went paint balling, hiking, sailing, and were able to have fun as a community!

 

In what ways, do you think you were able to step out of your comfort zone?

In the context of the internship, I had not worked with any of the languages or frameworks to the extent that I did this summer. It was also challenging being thrown into the deep end on my project. My manager switched teams during my summer which left me as the only engineer with experience on the project. This gave me the opportunity to take a leading role and teach the other engineers what I had been doing.

Outside of that, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I was constantly meeting people, both professional and personally. There were multiple chances to attend talks and take advantage of being in the Valley. 

 

What was something new that you realized after your experience this summer?

Something that struck me this summer was the difference in team dynamics when comparing a work environment to a school. At school, people often end up dividing the work evenly by doing a little bit of everything. There might be implicit roles, but the lines are blurred a bit due to everybody’s ability to contribute to one part or another. This summer, I was in an environment where everyone on the team had assigned roles, and it was important to take control of your own work stream. At times, I had to stop from overextending myself and trying to fill the role of a PM or designer.

 

How did you feel about the diversity within Silicon Valley in reference to racial, gender, and ideological aspects of the culture?

Silicon Valley is definitely lacking in diversity, but having said that, a lot of companies are introducing diversity initiatives in hopes of turning things around.

Regarding my experience at Indiegogo, I felt that the company was very diverse. One of the founders was a woman, and they had multiple diversity and inclusion groups. My mentor over at the company was a woman who was an insanely talented engineer and taught me a lot over the summer.

The KPCB program was also 50/50 men/women which was really cool since it allowed me to meet a lot of people and learn from them. I noticed that I enjoy myself a lot more when I am surrounded by diverse groups of people and able to learn from them.

 

Where do you see Silicon Valley moving in the next 5 years in terms of the types of ideas and problems people might be trying to solve?

I want to preface my answer by saying that I don’t feel I know enough to accurately make any judgement on the future of the Valley, but I have seen a trend towards companies that are less flashy, but more impactful.

I met a lot of interesting companies in the KPCB portfolio and one meeting that stuck out to me was Nuna Health. They’re a data company that stores data for Medicare and Medicaid which isn’t flashy work like the things you’d see at Facebook, but it’s just as important.

I hope that in the coming years, we see more companies that are using tech to do something good. I think current grads should be looking out for companies that will provide them with opportunities to make an impact and bring about change in their communities.

 

After your experience over the summer, what do you believe your next step is going to be?

I love coding! I love the way your mind has to operate when working through questions, and I also love being able to make something that people are going to use. For now, I plan to continue coding while I still can. In the future, I could see myself moving up to more high level stuff, but for right now, I just want to keep coding.

 

Summer Recap: Internships

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QUEST students are well known for being involved and on the go during the semester, and we certainly don’t stop once school lets out. From systems engineering in San Francisco (Renee Adkins, Q23) to reimagining the orchestra right here at home (Sarina Haryanto, Q26), QUEST students have made a splash all over the country. For more details on what everyone’s been up to this summer, check out the #QUESTinterns series on Instagram!

QUEST Camp: Memories from Cohort 29

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By: Celine Moarkech (Q29)

Q29 at QUEST Camp

Early wake ups came a few days early for Cohort 29 students this semester because on August 24th, they headed to YMCA’s Camp Letts for their new member orientation.

As everyone walked into the meeting room that morning with sleeping bags and large backpacks, it quickly became clear: they were meeting their newest family members at UMD, people that they hoped they could laugh with in the QUEST lab and build something great with in 190H. Eyes scanned the room to find familiar faces but to also study the new ones. All that was known is that everyone was now in QUEST. That was about it. However, that was also about to quickly change and that one commonality was about to flourish into dozens.

The first day started with the expected icebreakers like pretending to be mystical creatures and speedy games for learning everyone’s name. Shortly after, the students were split into their teams for the semester. Groups then split off to do puzzles and some high and low ropes courses. It was a great opportunity to get dragged through mud resembling peanut butter, to be tumbled on by a fellow team member, and to be contorted in the most strange ways. But more importantly, it was when trust developed, when people cheered their new friends on, and when Q29 started to really come together.

In between the activities and camp style meals, teams developed team names and introductions while also having their first shot at developing a product together. Come the night time, everyone gathered around the campfire to roast s’mores and to introduce their teams. There were the ExtraterQUESTrials, the Best QUESTern, Clair-voyance (in honor of their mentor), and many more. Each introductory skit was funnier than the last, and the evening was filled with laughs. Following the campfire, teams regrouped one last time to work into the night on their first-ever product presentation together. Q29 student David Rosenstein said, “The true highlight of the two-day experience was bringing our idea to life. It was unbelievable to see some people who have always been leaders step back and count on and work with their team members.”

The next morning, Q29, along with their mentors and the Quality Guild’s judges sat at the picnic tables to present their projects. Products ranged from the FriendDex to an app on UMD’s dining hall nutrition to a cup that maintained its user’s ideal temperatures. It was a creative first round of projects and only a glimpse into what the next few years hold for Q29.

Having completed orientation, Cohort 29’s students are officially integrated into QUEST! Q29 may have concluded their orientation, but they are back with great memories and have started developing friendships that will live long beyond their time in QUEST. As David (Q29) ended, “aside from free food and time in the QUEST lab, I’m most excited to be surrounded by the best people at Maryland!” QUEST really is a community full of great people, and the journey has just started for its newest members!

Meet QUEST’s New Graduate Assistant, Russell Ottalini!

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Russell Ottalini, QUEST’s New GA

The QUEST program is excited to have a new addition to the guild this academic year, Russell Ottalini! Having grown up in Silver Spring and attended Montgomery Blair High School, Russell comes to QUEST with experiences both from undergrad and his years of volunteering and working out of the classroom.

He attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in Sociology and Japanese. After he graduated, Russell worked with the Princeton to Asia (PiA) program for two years, teaching English in Japan. After PiA, Russell came back to Pittsburgh to work at HCL America for a year and a half. Shortly thereafter, he came back to his roots in Maryland, where he is now a graduate student at UMD studying Urban Studies and Planning.

When asked what brought him to work with the QUEST program and why he took on the assistantship, he said that he connected well with the mission and ideals of QUEST. Having been involved with honors programs in the past, Russell is keen on the overarching theme of honors students being enthused and invested into their futures and forming relationships with alumni and staff within those programs.

With QUEST in particular, Russell expressed enthusiasm about seeing students pursuing new innovations, which parallels well with his current studies in urban planning. With the recent changes in the Quality Guild, such as the addition of our new (but not really new) Executive Director Joe Bailey, Russell mentioned he’s more than excited for the potential for impact that he could have in the QUEST program in the upcoming years, as well as growth in professional and personal development.

If you found Russell at karaoke, he says that you’d be catching him singing the 60s top 100 hit Sukiyaki, which, by contrary to the suggested name of a food, translates to “I walk as I look up.” It’s great to have you on board, Russell, and the QUEST community is looking forward to getting to know you and seeing what you have in store for the future!