We we warmly welcomed by “World Chicago” team at their headquarters.

All of us had host families so we can immerse in the American culture. I was lucky one to have a lovely couple as hosts living in the best neighborhood in town.

I was impressed my the beauty of the neighborhood Lincoln Park my host are living in. A lot of houses looked like landscape from Europe (Italy or France).

People from Chicago are proud of the brick houses with the special red color.

The fellow from Macedonia, Blagica had a birthday so we started our journey in Chicago with the amazing view from 96th floor Signature lounge at John Hancock Center Building. As Blagica said “From now on my birthdays are going to be on places as fascinating as this one!”

During our fellowship in Chicago we had 2 workshops. The first one was at the end of the first week with goal to improve our own action plans with the help of each other advises practising team work and learning from equal level professionals with different backgrounds under the mentorship of Laurie R. Glenn, President & CEO of Thinkinc.

The second workshop was for building networking skills — a practical seminar just before the GES 2016 with Jennifer Ladek, President of The Coaching Group. Key lessons learned: be prepared and have a goal of the current networking, ask questions, listen and have your pitch ready, be confident, use and read body language.

Main goal of mine was to learn about the distribution chain of the specialty food industry in US. One of the most useful meetings I had was with Natalie Shmulik from the Hatchery. She is responsible of helping food start ups grow and develop distribution within US. At the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago International Trade Center they aslo have production facilities where chosen start ups place their production. The services they provide go even beyond, they provide mentorship, expertise and connections for starting export when the companies are ready.

The person that impressed me the most with knowledge was the Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Belgium, Mr. Paul Van Halteren. Our conversation started with a discussion of the current political and economic situation in Europe. As he had a rich background with international trade in the food industry and is a true “foodie” and gourmet person he gave me advises for key players of main markets for us like Japan, UK, Germany, France, Belgium and USA. He showed me also good retailers in Chicago like Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Cost Plus World Market, Williams-Sonoma, Sur la table — places where he goes shopping for international high quality food.

Mr. Paul Van Halteren appreated to be a great fan of the famous Bulgarian singer Sylvie Vartan and kindly surpriced me with some of her songs like “La Maritsa” and “Oblatche”.

Other good retailers I have visited are Treasure Island, Trader’s Joe, Plum Market, Foodstuffs, Whole Foods, Mariano’s, Fresh Market Farms International, Potash Market, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, The French Market and others.

Do you know Chicago has 22 Michelin Stars restaurant?! I was definately surpriced and facinated by this fact. Here is the full list.

We had a dinner in “Salero”, a very good spanish restaurant just next to “Blackbird”, one of the most popular michelin star restaurant.

Speaking about food industry cannot miss mentioning the best BBQ rips I have ever had cooked by Roland Kulla — a true artist famous for painting bridges and cooking delicious food with his own grown up vegetables and herbs. Mr. Roland Kulla was also the host of YTILI fellow from UK.

I had the pleasure to attend an event dedicated to roof top gardening. They explained us how many different plants they are growing as well as all the benefits that come with the urban farming.

We enjoyed a catering with the plants from the roof icluding a special cocktail and flower infused water.

Recipe for the cocktail: Prairie cucumber vodka, St.Germain, roof crop mint syrop, fresh lemon juice, soda water, roof crop edible flowers. It was a pleasant surprice as in Rosey’s mark we are developing the culture of “floral gastronomy” by creating specialty food from roses and creating recipies with our rose petals tea, rose jam and chocolate with roses.

Chicago has come interesting concepts in food industry. Have you seen a Cupcake ATM?

A key lesson I learned during my fellowship was the importance of having an Advisory board, keep networking with same level professionals from different industries, listen and observe contantly the changing environmet. It sounds as nothing new but I tend to forget doing it when jumping into the busy everyday life. I participated in a COO forum meeting which is scheduled once per month on a Tuesday morning 8:00–10:00, time which is proven to be spend not as wise as the other hours in the working week.

Chicago is know as the city of Blues music. We were lucky to visit the Chicago Blues Festival where Fred Wesley was playing live for us.

My favorite jazz club from now is the “Green Mill” known as the club of Al Capone. You just have to visit it — I have no words to describe it!

My “frined in crime” expeciencing Chicago blues culture was the YTILI fellow from France.

I cound’t miss the Art Institure in Chicago.

Chicago is knows for its skyscrapers. Among them is the rose blossom shaped Mr. Van der Rohe piece of art.

The first thing people hear when visiting Chicago is “Let’s meet at the Bean”. So here it is. Designed by the artist Anish Kapoor it is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates — giving the appearance of liquid mercury. Up close, the highly reflective nature of the sculpture captures the beautiful skyline of Chicago.

Chicago has always been a big trading center. People still remeber the big cattle market. The city is famous also for the Stock Exchange.

A lot of movies are shot is Chicago like Batman and the Jocker and Home Alone.

Chicago has so much to offer — I highly recommend everyone visiting it!

At the end of our fellowship in Chicago we had a farewell party with Word Chicago team, our hosts and mentors.

Farewell Chicago, I hope to see you soon.

#YTILI — Lifetime experience part 2 (Chicago). was originally published in Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Name: Blagica Petreski

Twitter handle: @FinanceThinkMk

Country of Origin: Macedonia

Organization Name: Finance Think — Economic Research & Policy Institute, Skopje

Organization Website: www.financethink.mk

Brief Description of Organization: Finance Think is an Economic Research & Policy Institute based in Skopje, Macedonia. Our Vision is to steer economic thinking for increased well-being tomorrow. Our Mission is to alleviate poverty, to strengthen macro-financial policies and to advance financial stability through economic research, advising and recommendations to economic policies and steering critical debate on economic processes. Finance Think published: five regular publications, two blogs and in depth research on the main problems in the country.

FT was awarded with the Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development by the Global Development Network and the Government of Japan, and the First Prize for Social Innovation by the United Nations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia.

What inspired you to start this organization?: Lack of research and critical economic debate in the country motivate me to establish the organization. Social science research — and, in particular, economic research — in Macedonia is poorly developed. There is lack of skills and knowledge for research among think tanks, and overall among NGOs, despite the prevalent potential, especially among the younger generation of think-tank professionals. Economic problems in the country are ‘cured’ ad-hoc, without credible analyses conducted and in the absence of research-based evidence. There is no critical debate in the society for important economic problems, due to lack of research-based evidence. Hence, advocacy is rarely convincing. On the other hand, no attempt has been made to make the rare research findings understandable for the wider public and how they can serve the public good and welfare.

What is the next big step you hope to help your organization reach? : The next step is to develop a research hub within Finance Think. The research hub will conduct several activities: to devise program and toolkit (methodology) for research trainings, to organize research school (one week training per year) for youth researchers, to develop a network of the best economic researchers in the country and provide a place for internship for youth researchers. By doing so, the research skills for economic topics will be improved, evidenced-based policy studies will be produced, and the critical debate for relevant economic topics in the country will be enhanced.

What has been your biggest obstacle as an entrepreneur? To find a qualified and motivated researchers with embedded analytical skills.

What advice would you give other emerging entrepreneurs? Dream for big ideas, don’t be afraid of failure.

• Twitter Handle: Ina Paunova (@ina_paunova)
• Country of Origin: Bulgaria
• Organization Name: Rosey’s mark
• Organization Website: www.roseysmark.com

Description of Organization: At ROSEY’S MARK we create innovative specialty natural and organic foods from roses like jam, tea and chocolate. We provide delight for all the senses, supply people with joy, love, and youth as oil-bearing roses are known for ages (even Cleopatra used rose oil and rose water) for being a natural aphrodisiac, and slow down the aging of cells in your body. Our goal is to make this very special rose called Rosa Damascena (symbol of Bulgaria) accessible for more people by creating high quality specialty food. By eating roses one can benefit the most from the “liquid gold” which otherwise is mainly used as raw material for highest quality perfumes and cosmetics.

What inspired you to start this organization: The lack of access by people all over the world to the benefits of Rosa Damascena inspired us. Everything started in Milan, Italy in 2011 when my sister Rossi and Co-founder of Rosey’s Mark completed her Master’s degree in Brand Management. She brought a regular jar of rose jam to her international friends, and they were so impressed and amazed but at the same time surprised. Why is such a special product not famous and nobody knows about it? They told my sister “You should do something about it!” So here we are, developing innovative high quality food products and distribution worldwide even without any background in food industry.

What is the next big step you hope to help your organization reach?Next step for us is exporting to key markets such as the US (NYC, San Francisco), UK (London), Japan, and China by working with specialty food retailers and distributors.

What has been your biggest obstacle as an entrepreneur? My biggest obstacle is to stay focused and persistent because I see so many opportunities but it is not possible to follow all of them.

What advice would you give other emerging entrepreneurs? My advice is to stay focused, surround yourself with inspiring and successful people, be persistent — to make a difference takes time.

Meet GES Delegate: Ina Paunova was originally published in Global Entrepreneurship Summit on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Acumen Fellow Ame Igharo

When you see Violet Mokaya zipping the forklift across the factory floor of BURN Manufacturing, you’d never believe she was shy and unsure of herself when she joined the Acumen investee, a company providing clean, energy-efficient cookstoves for Kenya’s poor. Today, the 27-year-old Nairobi native is seen by her colleagues as a key team member who holds the factory and its staff together. But that wasn’t always the case.

Working at BURN was never part of Violet’s plan. She was planning to complete her degree in accounting, but had to put it on hold for financial reasons, and get what she called a “big job.” She was actually ready to turn down the opportunity at BURN when a friend told her “If you want to go far, you need to start from somewhere. You can’t say you need to earn a million shillings when you haven’t even earned 50 shillings.“

So Violet joined BURN as a factory worker on the assembly line in 2013. She chose to forget everything she had learned about accounting, Microsoft Excel and balance sheets, and focus on the manual work of being on the production line. The first three months were tricky. She would wake up and think about skipping work. “I really just didn’t want to go in,” she said. After a few months, Violet realized that if she wanted to create a life for herself, own a home, and become and independent woman, she needed to commit to the job and wait and see what the future would hold.

At BURN, assembly line workers are trained to handle any position, so Violet began to take on everything from making parts to coating and final assembly. As she embraced the work, she saw that BURN as a company was growing and, with that growth, there were lots of new opportunities. So three months after she started, she went to her boss, Benson Kuria, and told him she wanted to take on more responsibility, such as handling the factory’s inventory. Ben was surprised at Violet’s request but promised her he’d give it some thought.

In the meantime, Violet continued to work hard and build strength after strength, learning the ins and outs of BURN’s manufacturing. She cultivated relationships with her teammates and collected feedback from her peers and managers to improve her work. Despite her rocky start, she was beginning to enjoy the work and take pride in the role she played at the social enterprise. “I learned I couldn’t survive without all of them,” she said. “We need to work together as a team to be successful.”

Five months later, a job for Inventory Assistant finally opened up, and Violet was top choice for the role. Today, she spends her days making sure the production line is stocked and runs seamlessly in order to meet the company’s targets. BURN sells 10,000 cookstoves a month, so it’s on Violet to make sure the stoves reach customers on time and that they receive everything they paid for.

Her hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. In December, Violet was recognized as one of BURN’s employees of the year. Reflecting on the honor, she believes her willingness to speak up and work with others were at the root of her success, “If I keep quiet, I found that there were some things that wouldn’t happen and, as a result, I wouldn’t go home happy,” she said. “I discovered when you coordinate with other people, it not only makes your work easier, it’s just fun.”

Violet is no longer the shy young woman who reluctantly arrived at BURN back in 2013. She is constantly pushing herself to learn more and take on more responsibility, though everyone at BURN feels Violet has already mastered many of the skills she thinks she needs to learn. When she wanted to learn how to drive the forklift, she went right to her manager and made her case. He threw her the keys and she had fun learning how to drive it on her own.

Violet is also becoming an inspiration to other women at the company. She helped her sister, Mary, get a job as a cafeteria worker and Mary was recently promoted to the factory line. Today, more than half of BURN’s team is female, and last year the company earned the Ashden Clean Energy for Women and Girls Award.

“BURN has made me see that I am somebody,” Violet said. Today, Violet is not only making enough to money to help her family but is also able save so she can complete her degree in accounting. But she is no longer interested in an office job; she says she has too much energy to sit at a desk. Instead she now wants to do something with her hands and run her own company someday. But first she wants to learn “how to run a successful company and how to be a successful person.”

As she starts her short walk to her new home down the street from BURN’s factory, it’s clear Violet is already well on her way. The dream she had when she started of becoming an independent woman has been fulfilled.

Ame Igharo is a 2016 Acumen Fellow.

The Acumen Fellows program is a leadership development program that equips emerging social leaders with the skills, knowledge and moral imagination to drive change in their communities.

All Fired Up was originally published in Acumen: Ideas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.