Smith Alums Support Ensures
Future QUEST Conferences, Programming
Undergrads Present Projects at Annual QUEST Innovation
and Consulting Conference

 

QUEST students (left to right) Ashley Ng, Greg Brown, Jessica Slick, and Christopher Barrow won the 2007 Project of the Year for their work for the Anacostia Watershed Society.

A gift from a recent Smith School graduate will ensure the future of the schools Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) Honors Fellows Program annual Innovation and Consulting Conference. QUEST Executive Director J. Gerald Suarez announced the gift at this years conference, held Dec. 6, 2007. The evening event is organized to give students opportunity to present their consulting projects to more than 250 business, nonprofit and government clients; faculty; parents; and peers.

The essence and strength of the QUEST program resides in the students, Suarez told the standing-room-only audience in Frank Auditorium. He introduced Matthew Brumberger, a 2007 Smith School information systems graduate and QUEST alumnus, who said he was compelled to give back to the program that has done so much for him. The QUEST community helped Brumberger through the emotional stress he faced as a junior when his father died and he missed six weeks of classes.

I cant imagine its ever easy, but I'm grateful for the things I was given, the support I received, Brumberger said. He said he felt a monetary gift was the best way to give back to the program he considers the pinnacle of his academic career so that other students can continue to benefit from the group work, active learning community, and real-world consulting experience showcased at the conference, now dubbed the Brumberger Innovation and Consulting Conference.

Most of the projects presented at the event are the capstone of the QUEST program for university seniors and the culmination of a semester of work. QUEST, one of the Smith Schools specialized Undergraduate Fellows programs, admits students from the Smith School, the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences. The program, which marks its 15th anniversary in 2008, involves who Senior Associate Dean Anand Anandalingam calls the best students on campus.

Student teams worked on 14 consulting projects for 13 companies in various industries, from aerospace to accounting to a nonprofit group. The projects gave the companies a chance to see some of the schools best students in action and gain valuable business solutions, while giving students the opportunity to work with real-life executives on real-life organizational problems a win-win situation for both students and businesses.

Also included in the conference were two additional projects from other QUEST courses, though not contracted by specific clients one that explored recycling by airlines and another that proposes an innovative campus bike-rental program. All the groups set up storyboard displays in Van Munching Halls first-floor Pownall Atrium to introduce their projects before the official conference kick-off.

Conference-goers had a chance to hear each group present project findings in breakout sessions. Teams delivered a synopsis of their project, described their methodology, how they conducted benchmarking and key recommendations. They took questions from audience members several of whom represented client organizations.

The conference concluded with the award for the 2007 Project of the Year a project for the Anacostia Watershed Society. The winning team delivered an encore presentation of their project, which offered the nonprofit environmental organization a plan to manage storm water runoff in the University of Maryland East Campus Redevelopment Initiative on the watershed with an innovative fountain. Students on all teams shared enthusiasm for the benefit of consulting with top organizations.

This was one of the most practical projects of my college experience, said Allie Armitage, a senior marketing major who worked on a project for global strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. We learned how to manage real-world client relationships, how to multitask and meet deadlines, and the importance of strong communication all invaluable skills to take to our future careers.

The clients were just as pleased. Many of the groups were invited to deliver their presentations for clients on-site after the conference. Some students even reported receiving job offers from client companies. Several companies have forged strong relationships with the QUEST program and continue to participate in contracting student teams for projects each year.

Brumberger, in fact, now works at Booz Allen Hamilton, for which he and his QUEST team consulted in 2006 when he was a senior. Several of his Booz Allen colleagues are fellow QUEST alums. And like his employer, Brumberger plans to stay actively engaged with the program, not just through his gift, but also providing support on an organizational level.

I definitely plan on coming back I will not stay distant, he said.

Further information on the QUEST program can be found at: www.rhsmith.umd.edu/quest

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▓ Carrie Handwerker, Office of Marketing Communications