QSocial: Bringing the QUEST Community Together

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QSocial is one of QUEST’s exciting and community-driven clubs. They take on the task of planning and hosting all of our social events to bring our close-knit community together. From tailgates to happy hours, QSocial knows how to show our QUESTees a fun time. I talked to the current QSocial lead Abby Bond to reflect on QSocial’s events this semester and what we can look forward to next semester.

Abby Bond is a senior Bioengineering major in Cohort 37 and has been the QSocial lead since her sophomore year. She finds her favorite part of being lead is a tie between all the connections she’s made with QUESTees and members of other QUEST organizations and seeing QSocial events bond others together. She said, “It’s extremely rewarding to give back to the QUEST community and help others foster those friendships and memories that have made me love QUEST so much.” She has found the most challenging part of being lead is getting students involved during the post-COVID slump and trying to rebuild that togetherness pre-COVID students experienced. Abby has brought a lot of great changes to QSocial including revitalizing the Big/Little program and growing the organization to be three times bigger than when she started. 


QSocial has had a busy semester putting on so many fun events including Big/Little Kickoff, Welcome Back Mocktails, the Homecoming Tailgate, and Friendsgiving. They don’t plan to slow down next semester either! Classic events like QUEST Formal will be back in the spring along with some new mystery events like the Welcome Back Event. There will also be an alumni dinner and an end-of-the-year picnic. While Bond has a love for all of the events, she found the tailgate to be her favorite because “it’s a wonderful combination of current students, the Quality Guild, alumni, and great times. Plus you can’t really beat fresh caramel apples!” She’s looking forward to passing on her legacy to new co-leads Rohan Gudwani, Cohort 42, and Anna Fulton, Cohort 42. She’s also excited for QUEST Formal to come back.

QSocial is integral to the close community and network we value as part of the QUEST program. Bond has put so much time and energy into making it an amazing organization, and we are looking forward to the work the new co-leads will do. Thanks QSocial!

QUEST Alumni Work to Continuously Improve UMD

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Within the University of Maryland’s Department of Information Technology, the Enterprise Planning Continuous Improvement Group (EPCI) consists of four team members who are actually QUEST alumni! This team is a QUEST hotspot as it is a consultation service that is provided for departments within the University. I was able to talk to two of the QUEST alumni – Emilyn Hyre (Cohort 34) and Bobby Fitzgerald (Cohort 21 – to learn about their positions at UMD and how QUEST has continued to stick with them post-college.

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QUEST’s Halloween Extravaganza: Costumes, Competitions, and Community Giving

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The candy bowls may be empty and jack-o’-lanterns may have flickered out, but the echoes of Halloween’s mischief and merriment linger on. As we all pack up our costumes for another year, it’s time to look back on some of the fun QUEST students had, both through class competitions and giving back to the community.

BMGT190 students on Halloween!

BMGT 190H students on Halloween!

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Alumnus Chris Coraggio Enters the World of Coaching

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QUEST alumni continue to amaze us with their accomplishments and endeavors. This month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Coraggio, a member of Cohort 16, who has been very busy since graduating from Maryland in 2011 with his bachelor’s in Information Systems and Marketing. Most recently, he is the founder and principal coach of Potencia, an organizational coaching practice. 

Chris Coraggio

After graduating from Maryland, Coraggio joined Teach for America then continued his education by getting a Masters in Education and going to Spain to receive a bilingual (Spanish) MBA. He thought he wanted to enter the HR world so he found a job with Citi in HR but wasn’t fully satisfied with it. He decided to take some time off traveling in Asia and discovered he wanted to incorporate education into his future career, wanted a career that felt fulfilling, and had an entrepreneurial itch that led him to obtain a certification in Executive Coaching and Leadership and start Potencia. He’s proud of pushing past any hesitancy and bringing his ideas to life. “I’ve historically just been really hesitant to put myself and my ideas out there for fear of what others think of me. And over and over again, I’ve pushed past fear to get this company to fruition,” he shared.

Coraggio is a full-time consultant now with SOL Digital but started Potencia as a side gig. He finds that the most rewarding part of coaching is seeing adults have their “aha” moments when they see themselves from a new perspective. “As a former teacher, I remember all the wonderful “aha” moments my students had in my math class,” said Coraggio. “Those “ahas” were really easy to come by, because students were learning new mathematical concepts, and it was pretty natural for them to learn to insights. With adults, it’s harder work to have somebody see themselves or a situation from a new perspective. So the “aha” moments are really special.”

He described a recent win where his coaching allowed a friend to discover a positive insight about why they were leaving their current city. The insight that leaving was moving forward led the friend to change his perspective on what’s up next. He thanks QUEST for instilling in him the importance of networking and community and his attitude towards quality and continuous improvement. He finds himself to be a lifelong learner and always striving to be a better coach. He also remembers “QUEST legends” like Dr. Suarez and Dr. Bailey teaching him to design for the future he wants and trust his instincts.

For anyone interested in coaching check out Potencia’s website here where Coraggio blogs about a variety of topics. He is also offering free coaching office hours to QUEST alumni and students on Wednesdays 4-6pm and Fridays 3-5pm now through January.

QUEST Alumni Panel Sheds Light on Tech Careers

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QUESTech, one of our seven student organizations, hosted a successful Alumni Panel on November 9th, 2023, featuring alumni from multiple technology specialties – Software Engineering (SWE), Product Management (PM), Data, and Engineering. Around twenty five students attended this hybrid event, which took place over multiple rooms, both in person and through Zoom, so students could move from room to room and explore several fields.

In the SWE room, there were four alumni. John McGahagan (Cohort 16), Ilan Gold (Cohort 22), Sophia Khezri (Cohort 32), and Ben Lin (Cohort 33) gave advice to current QUESTees on searching for internships and full-time positions at major software companies. Some advice included not putting too much pressure on your first job as it is only a small part of your career journey. Also, a quick fun fact: Ilan Gold shared that he was a founding member of QUEST Corporate!

In the PM room, alumni Andrew Lee (Cohort 23), Adam Sarsony (Cohort 29), Jacqueline Deprey (Cohort 30), and Kartik Krishnan (Cohort 31) shared their experiences in the industry. Krishnan mentioned the wide variety of work he does as a product manager at Microsoft. Currently, he is working on a project to update the Microsoft taskbar, located on the top of all Microsoft products!

In the Data room, Alia Abdelkader (Cohort 27) shared her experience working in the Congressional Budget Office. She plans on working there for a bit, as she is extremely passionate about the tax policy she works on. Abdelkader is considering a PhD in the future, possibly in public policy!

In the final room, Engineering, Joe Dadzie (Cohort 23) and Charles Grody (Cohort 29) discussed their work experiences in chemical engineering and manufacturing. Dadzie mentioned how he is ready to move back to his lab coat and work hands-on in his new project engineering role at ASR Group.

Samantha Taskale, Cohort 38 student and one of the co-leads for QUESTech, reflected, “The QUESTech alumni panel event was an amazing opportunity for QUEST students to explore possible career paths and build connections with our alumni network. We are very grateful for the alumni who took time out of their schedule to speak to the students and answer all of their questions.”

QUEST Corporate’s Mentorship Program Launches its Fourth Iteration

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The QUEST faculty and staff actively enable and encourage students to take advantage of our extensive alumni network, which includes over 1,500 alumni. Sometimes reaching out can seem daunting to students, but QUEST Corporate’s mentorship program helps. Entering its fourth year, this program pairs QUEST students with an alumni mentor working in a field that matches their career interests over the course of a semester.

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