QUEST Alumni Involvement and Spotlights

QUEST ALUMNI INVOLVEMENT

One of the greatest strengths of the QUEST program is its vibrant alumni community. In our 28th year, we have over 1,200 alumni across the world.

QUEST alumni continue to be involved through social events, classroom visits, company engagements, and more. To learn more about how you and/or your company can get involved, contact QUEST Assistant Director Jessica Roffe at jroffe@umd.edu.

QUEST alumni Elijah Biggs, bioengineering ‘17 (Cohort 22) and Alexandra Malek, information systems and supply chain ‘18 (Cohort 25), left, hosted students at IBM in Washington, D.C. in early March

QUEST alumnus Steve Kutchi, mechanical engineering ‘97 (Cohort 1), right, Director of Hardware & Support Engineering at Thales, served as project champion for a fall 2019 490H team

QUEST alumni Mark Baumgardner, decision information systems & accounting ‘00 (Cohort 5), right, and Joel Liebman, finance & economics ‘09 (Cohort 14), left, represented their company Guidehouse at the Fall 2019 QUEST Corporate Networking Event

QUEST alumnus Zachary Azrael, information systems ‘19 (Cohort 27), second from right, visited 490H class to provide advice to Cohort 31 students on their capstone projects

QUEST alumnus Eric Ding, computer engineering ‘19 (Cohort 28), left, hosted students at the Capital One headquarters in McLean, VA this spring

QUEST alumni Elizabeth Gillum, marketing & supply chain management ‘19 (Cohort 28) and Michael Vetter, accounting & finance ‘19 (Cohort 28), middle, met up with current students at the Homecoming Tailgate this fall

QUEST ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

Jenna (Cohen) Beglin, finance and operations management ‘10 (Cohort 15), credits QUEST with leading her to the career path she’s on today. As a Senior Manager of Consumer Insights at Samsung, Beglin leads a team that conducts primary consumer research to help come up with and guide the design of new innovation concepts.

Jenna (Cohen) Beglin

“QUEST taught me how to problem solve and apply relevant frameworks to my everyday work. That is what led me to pursue consulting after graduating at Accenture, which was the perfect way to begin,” she shared. “Consulting gave me exposure to so many different types of projects, insight into high-level strategy, and a basis for how to break down complicated requests into manageable pieces. The one piece that was missing was the consumer. Often our strategies were developed without any input from the consumer, which seemed like a gap to me.” To transition into a more consumer-facing role, Beglin enrolled in Cornell’s MBA program, where she discovered the world of brand and innovation consulting and ultimately landed her role at Samsung in 2018. “I love being able to hear directly from the consumer and use their input to influence the new products Samsung develops. There is something so fun about hearing a consumer say ‘I literally would never use that’ or ‘If you made this product, I would go out and buy it tomorrow’ or learning that different consumers can have completely differing opinions and behaviors. For instance, some consumers organize their apps in folders by color, which is something I never would have fathomed because it is so far from my own behavior,” she explained. As a team lead, Beglin often reflects on her experiences in QUEST teams. “I remember during orientation there was one girl I was worried I wouldn’t get along with, and of course, she ended up on my 190H team. It turned out that she was such an amazing, lovely person, and we actually bonded and got along quite well. It taught me an incredibly important lesson not to make snap judgments about people that I have carried forward with me throughout my whole life.” Beglin advises current students to take advantage of their QUEST coursework. “QUEST classes were easily the most useful and challenging classes I had while at UMD. Take them seriously, and give them your all. These are the real skill sets you need to become a valuable employee and have a successful career.”

Entering college, Nate Elencweig, mechanical engineering ‘13 (Cohort 18), was quite certain he’d become a Mechanical Engineer upon graduation. But in QUEST, he discovered the world of process improvement, data analysis, and systems thinking and realized “this is what I want to do.” His favorite course was Dr. Suarez’s systems thinking course. “My team worked on a project to design a robot DJ, which would use facial and motion recognition sensors to interpret the body language of listeners in the audience. The data would be analyzed and the optimal music selection for the audience would then be determined. We were confident that we were going to disrupt the music industry and retire at the age of 22. We were wrong,” he joked. Nate Elencweig After graduating, Elencweig found himself unemployed for eight months and decided to meet a QUEST alumna for a drink. That meeting led to an interview and ultimately a job at Accenture, where he spent the next four years. “Reflecting back, the time I spent unemployed may have been the most insightful period of my life,” he recalled. “With the economic impact of COVID-19, I know that many are worried about jobs and internships, but it’s important to recognize you’re not alone. Spend time with family and friends. Stay connected with former classmates and coworkers. Down times in your life are inevitable, but embrace the challenge, and the wins will be more meaningful.” As a Technology Analyst at Accenture, Elencweig worked on supply chain process improvement projects for government clients in Washington, D.C. In 2018, he moved to New York City and joined Oscar Health, a tech company taking on health insurance. Elencweig was attracted to Oscar Health’s mission of solving challenging questions such as how to navigate the complex healthcare space and overcome outdated technology and rising costs. This spring, Oscar Health partnered with a team of QUEST students in the Applied Quantitative Analysis course. He explained, “The team worked on a project that identified over $1 million in potential savings for Oscar Health by focusing on factors that impact customer retention. After watching the final presentation, a Director that I work with who has a son in college remarked, ‘I should have sent my son to Maryland.’” Working with the QUEST students was an opportunity for Elencweig to give back to the program that he says got him where he is today. “My advice to current students is not to give up on your goals. If you set a goal and stick to it, you’ll eventually land in that direction. Some goals take days. Some goals take years. Some goals don’t go exactly as planned. External factors may slow you down, but you control the trajectory of your life.”

QUEST ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS (CONTINUED)

Kajal Pancholi, aerospace engineering ‘02 (Cohort 7), fondly recalls the many all-nighters spent with her QUEST teams. “Through team bonding, we built lifelong friendships and a strong professional network. I still connect often with some of my fellow Cohort 7 members today,” she shared. As an engineering student at UMD, Pancholi appreciated the soft skills she gained from QUEST. “As any engineering student will attest, the engineering curriculum is rather intense and laser-focused on developing STEM skills. QUEST added a unique learning opportunity to my overall University of Maryland experience and introduced me to valuable professional skills, such as communicating within cross-functional teams, appreciating business (not just technical) viewpoints on any project, and continuously striving to improve and enhance my work processes.” Kajal Pancholi Today, Pancholi is the President & CEO of Avatar Technologies, Inc., an aerospace engineering services and management consulting firm in Greenbelt, Maryland, and her QUEST skills still come in handy on a daily basis. “All through high school, I was never fond of public speaking or giving class presentations. As a result of QUEST, I am very confident with client pitches, business presentations, and even panel moderation in front of hundreds of international space industry professionals today!” Before running her own company, Pancholi worked at Millennium Engineering and Integration Company, a mid-sized aerospace and defense contractor in Arlington, Virginia, for 15 years. “I joined Millennium as an intern during my senior year and eventually became their Director of Business Development. In this capacity, I assisted with several different corporate development initiatives and had exposure to the nuances of operating and growing a successful aerospace and defense contracting firm. My passion for the aerospace industry and growing interest in entrepreneurship led me to run my own aerospace engineering company starting in 2016.” Recently, Avatar set a corporate goal to certify its quality management system against the international ISO 9001:2015 standard. Pancholi turned to a team of QUEST students in the capstone course to develop tailored quality management tools and techniques for the company’s operations. “We were happy with our decision and the outcome – Avatar’s on a path to become ISO 9001 certified soon, and we are implementing most of the team’s recommendations. We even hired one of the QUEST team members, Devin Rosen, Mathematics ‘19 (Cohort 27), as a summer intern to continue the project through the summer.” As CEO, Pancholi’s favorite thing is the ability to apply her robust education and experience to tackle any new situation. She advises current students to focus on working hard, volunteering for extra work projects, fostering mentorship relationships, and being flexible to new or intimidating work assignments in order to naturally become visible to the leadership team. “It may be cliché,” she said. “But, as you enter the workforce, these early career experiences will have a lasting impact on your professional journey!”

Aditya Yerramilli, finance and accounting ‘09 (Cohort 14), first discovered forensic accounting in high school. “It was during the time when some of the big accounting scandals happened in 2001 and 2002 (Enron, Worldcom), and there was a general distrust of accountants and accounting firms. This motivated me to want to be one of the ‘good guys,’ and I decided to pursue accounting in college,” he shared.

At UMD, he was a part of College Park Scholars, Hinman CEOs, the American Marketing Association, and of course, QUEST. “QUEST undoubtedly taught me critical skills that I continue to lean on today. The three biggest areas that I believe QUEST helped set me up for success are: (a) how to work

Aditya Yerramilli effectively in a cross-functional or cross-disciplinary setting, (b) understanding the ‘voice of the customer’ and their needs, and (c) disciplined process thinking and continuous improvement. Eleven years after graduating, these three lessons still resonate with me and have day-to-day applications in my work. In fact, just the other day, in a team meeting, we were discussing applying the house of quality approach in one of my projects,” said Yerramilli. Through his forensic accounting class at Smith, he discovered a role with PwC’s Forensic Advisory practice in Tysons Corner, Virginia. While at PwC, he worked on a range of forensic matters, such as anti-corruption, MNC corporate investigations, white collar crime, disputes, and financial statement fraud. In 2014, he transitioned to a role with Google Legal as a Data Analytics & Forensics Manager in Mountain View, California. He received a promotion last year and moved back east, continuing his role at Google in the Washington, D.C. office. Yerramilli enjoys the wonderful and talented people he works with at Google, as well as the interesting and complex problems. “I definitely appreciate the flexibility, work-life balance, and perks that come with the job at Google, too, along with the collegiate atmosphere and culture of collaboration,” he explained. Yerramilli encourages current students to spend as much time, if not more, on soft skills. “From my experience, it’s not always the smartest or most technically-capable person that is most successful. Rather, those individuals who are adept at understanding, motivating, influencing and communicating with people are the most successful.”