A-Listers Create International Chocolate Booth

The world through chocolate: knowledgeable and hard-working Kendall College A-List students created an interactive Chocolate Booth for the campus International Fair, with yours truly as advisor! Samples from 3 of the first-class craft chocolate brands I represent:  Solstice Chocolate made in the US from Uganda Cacao, Marou Chocolate made in Vietnam from Vietnam cacao, and Pump Street Bakery Chocolate made in England from Honduras cacao. All sustainable, child-slavery-free, soy-free, small-batch, and scrumptious - available in Chicago at Hannah's Bretzel (Solstice, Pump Street) or Pastoral (Marou) - and presented along with a craft chocolate survey and brochure by A-Listers!

When the Kendall College Manager of International Affairs, Mr. Clare Lake, asked if I would gather students to create a chocolate booth for the school's International Fair in spring of 2017, I immediately thought of A-Listers such as Michael Wulfstat and Aida Yestayeva who have become craft chocolate experts, and of students in my Business Case Development class who were on a class team working on a chocolate-related project!

Those who stepped up to join Aida and Michael from Business Case Development were then-On-Target A-Listers (now full-fledged members!) and are a very special and professional group of students: Martim Dias da Cunha, Doina Railean, Maria Benedita Silva Pinto, and Daniel Wigutow!

Many hands make light work: A-Listers designed and created the Chocolate Booth from (a tiny fraction of!) of my artisan chocolate bar wrapper collection!

This group not only created a beautiful booth display out of a small portion of my chocolate bar wrapper collection, Business Case Development A-Listers also created, conducted, and analyzed a well-thought-out survey, from which they devised a potential new business division for their class business case.

The students also designed a lovely and informative brochure and interactive poster, and together with their long-time A-Lister counterparts they welcomed booth visitors warmly, shared samples of the chocolate bars I selected to tell the sustainable bean-to-bar chocolate story in an international fashion, and shared education on how to enjoy artisan chocolate and choose sustainable chocolate made from child-slavery-free cacao.

Michael Wulfstat, Benedita Silva Pinto, and Daniel Wigutow at the Chocolate Booth at the Kendall College spring 2017 International Fair

The booth drew enthusiastic praise from Kendall students, faculty, staff, and administration, who were impressed with the professionalism of the students, the deliciousness of the chocolate, and the educational aspects the students put into the booth and their interaction with guests.

I was enormously impressed to see the team working together so well to create and implement a plan that met and exceeded their objectives, while having fun and spreading the good chocolate word in a fun way for all who came to the booth!

For example, a goal was to gather 40 survey responses, and the team collected 106!

Survey respondents were entered to win one of my Chocolate Uplift craft chocolate subscription boxes

Congratulations, new and seasoned A-Listers and sustainable chocolate experts!

Wave if you love chocolate!
Superstar A-Listers behind the Chocolate Booth:
Daniel Wigutow, Benedita Silva Pinto, Doina Railean, yours truly Valerie Beck, Michael Wulfstat, Aida Yestayeva, Martim Dias da Cunha.

Teamwork!
Our Chocolate Booth A-Listers and I wearing our new Peruvian friendship bracelets from Chocolate Uplift subscription boxes, to honor the original source of cacao - South America - and with cocoa beans - the source of all chocolate.
Onward and upward!