The Last A-List Afternoon at The Peninsula

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” - JK Rowling

At our A-List celebration on April 10, 2018, at the Peninsula Chicago Hotel: Ramzan Elimkhajiyev, Ying Ying Tan, Cordelia Yuyun Shen, David Ulis, Ritsan Gyaltshen, Aidana Seitova, yours truly Valerie Beck, Francisco Yiqian Zhan Du, Fanyi Wang, Martim Castro, Hanane Awad, Christopher Hand, Annefried Moller, Miguel Andrade!

Pop quiz:

Q. What is the A-List?
A. It's the club of Kendall College students who earned an A in my class!

Q. What does it mean to be on the A-List?
A. You get perks, starting with a party!

Here's to each of my students who - through your dedication and imagination, your critical thinking and big dreaming - earned an A in my International Business or Business Law class last term at Kendall College!

To celebrate your induction into our A-List club, we gathered at the Peninsula Chicago Hotel, where I was delighted to be able to treat our group to a custom afternoon tea  - a chocolatey one, of course! Our gathering was buoyantly cheerful and also felt particularly meaningful because it was our final tea celebration, as last term was my final term teaching at Kendall and as Kendall is planned to transition to new ownership by National Louis University this summer.

Congratulations to our new A-Listers who were present:

• Miguel Andrade
• Hanane Awad
• Francisco Yiqian Zhan Du
• Ramzan Elimkhajiyev
• Ritsen Gyaltshen
• Christopher Hand
• Annefried Moller
• Aidana Seitova
• Cordelia Yuyun Shen
• Ying Ying Tan
• David Ulis
• Fanyi Wang

And thank you to our returning A-Lister who accepted my invitation to share with the group what the A-List means to him:

• Martim Castro

First-class settings for our A-Listers

On our custom menu: cherry chocolate pastries with edible flowers, and mint chocolate pastries with edible gold, plus coffee or tea

In our thoughtful group discussion, it was wonderful to hear what some of you like about studying at Kendall, such as the active learning methods in our classrooms and on our field trips, and what some of you would change, such as the absence of leading-edge sustainability practices like food bank donations in our kitchens and other spaces. We also talked about opportunities to take those messages forward as Kendall transitions to NLU.

I presented certificates to each A-Lister, as tangible tokens of success, and we played our Write A Compliment game, where everyone passed their certificates around and everyone wrote a compliment about you, as you wrote compliments about everyone else on their certificates. After your certificate went around the table and came back to you, you acquired a beautiful collection of wonderful elements that others see in you, to keep forever such as in a "rainy day file" of materials guaranteed to cheer you up whenever you need it! And you gave everyone a boost of uplift or encouragement!

What if your colleagues saw gifts in you that you didn't notice or value? And what if you praised aspects of them that they didn't know anyone noticed or cared about? How magnificent! This is part of the beauty of the Write A Compliment game!

On the front: your certificate of A-List status. On the back: receive compliments written by your colleagues, as you write compliments to each of them, and your certificate gains extra meaning!

We also enjoyed special craft chocolate bars that I brought to our gathering, just as it was always a pleasure to bring craft chocolate to class as part of our case studies, or simply for fun and to enjoy pure and sustainable luxury chocolate made from just cacao and sugar - "all you need!"

I'm delighted to have brought extra chocolate just as in class: Dandelion Chocolate Kokoa Kamili Tanzania, made in San Francisco, and Ranger Chocolate Piura Peru, made in Portland, Oregon.
And, just as our refrain went in class: cacao and sugar - all you need!

Thank you to Fanyi for the Downton Abbey deluxe DVD set! I am grateful for this thoughtful and elegant gift.

Thank you to Hanane for the chocolate cookies from Spain! I appreciate this delicious and international present.

We took photos galore, and we didn't want to leave! In a way, we don't have to: I've created an A-List LinkedIn Group as promised, so that A-Listers can share thoughts, news, opportunities, questions, or just good old A-List camaraderie! If you're an A-Lister and we're not already connected on LinkedIn, please send me an invitation, and I'll invite you to the group!

With ladies of intelligence and elegance: Aidana, Cordelia, Ying Ying, yours truly, Annefried, Hanane, Ritsen.

With gentlemen of character and kindness: David, Ramzan, Miguel, yours truly, Christopher, Francisco, Martim, Fanyi.

I thank our Kendall Leadership for always supporting the A-List, and above all I thank YOU - my awesome and amazing A-Listers! I have loved working with you, will be thrilled to keep in touch with you, and will forever be deeply proud of you for your hard work, for your open-mindedness, for your positivity and professionalism, and for simply being you!

What will we do next on the A-List? We shall see!

Keep up your great dedication and imagination, and here's to your big dreams coming true!

Onward and upward!

Valerie Beck

Peninsula style for the A-List!

A-Listers Win Cash in Kendall Ideas Competition

"Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea." – Jim Rohn

Kendall Ideas Competition finalist and A-Lister Martim Castro, 1st prize winner and A-Lister Eric Neverman (back row), 3rd prize co-winner and A-Lister Jose Cuadros (front row), yours truly Valerie Beck, Kendall College President Paul Lussow (back row), 3rd prize co-winner and A-Lister Mikaela Turner, finalist Henry Sakhel, 2nd prize winner Rick Wong! Congratulations!

The inaugural Kendall College Ideas Competition was a brilliant success!

The Kendall Incubator run by Rob Watson invited students to enter the Ideas Competition by submitting business ideas with a social justice or sustainability element, and we saw 27 entrants, 9 finalists, and 4 cash prize winners!

I'm excited that I was one of the Competition coaches, along with fellow part-time instructor Cindy McCarthy, and proud that 4 of the finalists and 3 of the winners were A-Listers, meaning that they earned an A in a class with me!

I'm also proud that 2 of the winners used craft chocolate to which I was able to introduce them through my Chocolate Uplift sustainable chocolate distribution business!

The winners of the first-ever Kendall Ideas Competition:

• 1st Place:  Eric Neverman, PCS Stars, military family relocation services
• 2nd Place: Rick Wong, indoor edible insect farming
• 3rd Place: tie between Mikaela Turner, Mikki Chewz sustainable confections promoting PoC mental health awareness, and Jose Cuadros, Millette luxury watches made from recycled materials

Well done!

Prize money:

• $1,000 for our 1st Place winner,
• $750 for our 2nd Place winner, and
• $250 for each of our two 3rd Place winners.

Information will also be forthcoming to the winners about possible advancement to the Laureate McGuire Business Plan Competition, where additional cash prizes and recognition are available! (See this earlier post about our Kendall team that won 2nd place in the McGuire competition previously!)

For the judges' consideration: Mikki Chewz confections, using sustainable Violet Sky Chocolate, by 3rd prize co-winner Mikaela Turner!

Judges also tasted chocolate covered crickets, and cricket flour chocolate chip cookies, using sustainable Xocolatl Chocolate, by 2nd prize winner Rick Wong!

Deep appreciation to our esteemed judges from from the business community:

• Leslie Lancry, Founder of Language Stars
• Laura Ortega, Executive Director of the International Council of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce
• Adam Zmick, Founder of Gardeneers

Mini Harvard reunion at the Kendall Ideas Competition: yours truly with my fellow Harvard Alumni Association members and friends Leslie Lancry and Adam Zmick, who along with our other fantastic entrepreneurs and professionals kindly accepted my invitation to join the day as judges

Heartfelt thanks as well to our esteemed judges from Kendall College:

• President Paul Lussow
• Vice President of Academic Affairs Ryan Bartelmay
• Culinary and Hospitality Program Director Leigh Uhlir

We applaud our judges and value their thoughts and expertise!

Finalists and their ideas, in last-name alphabetical order:

• Aysel Ayata, wearable safety tech to prevent rape or other attack
• Martim Castro, rehabilitation school to integrate ex-prisoners into society and the workforce
• Jose Cuadros, online retail of affordable luxury watches made of recycled materials, with a portion of proceeds going to environmental organizations
• Armande Luguenot and Lisette Fortoso, wardrobe styling app from customer's closet, plus clothing donation service
• Eric Neverman, PCS Stars, military family relocation services, staffed by veterans and military family members
• Ngan Nguyen, organic nail salon with non-toxic products and recycled furniture
• Henry Sakhel, Purchase, app for small business supplier comparison and ratings
• Mikaela Turner, Mikki Chewz sustainable chocolate confections, with a portion of proceeds supporting mental health awareness in the black community
• Yik (Rick) Wong, indoor edible insect farming

The Ideas Competition was a wonderful all-school event that added vibrancy to Kendall and to the student experience, combining learning, fun, and professional development, in a meaningful and memorable way.

Congratulations to our Kendall Ideas Competition winners and to each of our finalists! It was a great pleasure coaching and working with you, and we are fantastically proud of you for your innovative ideas which include or are based upon social justice or sustainability elements, and for your professional behavior, huge efforts, and shining success!

From your Kendall Incubator team: yours truly Valerie Beck, Incubator Director Rob Watson, Cindy McCarthy!

"...put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Onward and upward!

Valerie Beck

A List Party at the Peninsula

"Choose to focus your time, energy and conversation around people who inspire you, support you and help you to grow you into your happiest, strongest, wisest self." - Karen Salmansohn

What a thrill to spend time with my A students from Kendall College, and to invite them to the phenomenal Peninsula Chicago to celebrate their success while enjoying inspiring conversation, award certificate presentations and our "compliment game" in which each student writes a compliment on each other student's certificate (described here too, scroll down), and delicious chocolate and pastry!

Seated and sparkling: Steve Boyu Zhu, Dana Marat, Kamila Tatubayeva, Karolina Silveira, yours truly Valerie Beck, Martim Castro, Lara Pucci, Emma Lin Peng, and Safra Junaid!

Wave if you love the Peninsula!

We welcomed our newest A-Listers who earned A grades during Summer 2017; those present were:

• Safra Junaid
• Emma Lin Peng
• Lara Pucci
• Karolina Silveira
• Steve Boyu Zhu

 and we celebrated with current A-Listers as well; those present were:

• Martim Castro
• Dana Marat
• Kamila Tatubayeva

as our A-List continues to sparkle!

What are perks of earning an A in my class and thus earning a spot on the A-List? In addition to celebrating at the A-List Chocolate and Macaron Party at the Peninsula, A-Listers receive professional development opportunities from me, such as joining me at various business, hospitality, or culinary events, or at seminars, networking parties, or volunteer days.

Plus, being on the A-List means being part of a special team at Kendall, for enhanced community and team spirit!

Each student received a signed certificate to which everyone at the table added a written compliment - thank you, Dear Students, for my compliments too! - so that connections were built, positivity was shared, and any down day can be brightened with a look back at your certificate,

while we enjoyed delicious blackberry macarons and chocolate brownie batons with coffee or tea,

plus thoughtful and exciting conversation in the beautiful Lobby of the Peninsula Chicago Hotel!

In addition to the exquisite pastries and macarons from the Peninsula, we sampled chocolate I brought to our gathering from my Chocolate Uplift wholesale distribution portfolio and craft chocolate subscription box business, just as I always bring chocolate to class for business case studies, sustainability examples, and chocolate appreciation practice!

This time:

• Fruition Chocolate (US pastry chef turned craft chocolate maker)
• Original Beans Chocolate (Amsterdam-based chocolate business; for every bar sold, a cacao tree is planted #onebaronetree) and 
• Good King salted and sugared snacking cacao (US woman-owned business, using cacao from women's collectives in Indonesia and Honduras).

The brands I represent are always:

• sustainable
• slavery-free
• soy-free
• small-batch and
• scrumptious!

Looking ahead, some of our A-Listers will soon graduate, and some past A-Listers already have; it is my wish that alumni connections will develop and deepen on our A-List platform. My Harvard College and Harvard Law School alumni associations are very meaningful to me, and I hope that Kendall College A-List alumni will similarly encourage and support each other!

With A-List ladies of intelligence and elegance: Safra Junaid, Lara Pucci, Kamila Tatubayeva, yours truly Valerie Beck, Karolina Oliveira, Emma Lin Peng, Dana Marat.

With A-List gentlemen of distinction Steve Boyu Zhu and Martim Castro.

No matter what these excellent A-Listers do, I am fabulously proud of them for their hard work, fresh insights, and strength of character. They are not only stellar students who set the pace in class, but also stellar people who touch and improve the lives of others, and with whom I am honored and invigorated to spend time.

My Dear Students, you inspire me, and I thank you for doing what you do, and being who you are!

Onward and upward!
Professor Valerie Beck

See you next time!

A-Listers visit Violet Sky Chocolate

Imagine spending a day visiting a chocolate factory!

And imagine not just any factory, but an innovative small-batch artisan chocolate business that uses sustainable cacao, and where the founder is there to give a private look behind the scenes and to share information, insights, inspiration, and of course lots of delicious chocolate.

This dream was reality for A-Listers: through the Kendall College Incubator, I invited top Kendall students to accompany me on a visit to my esteemed client Violet Sky Chocolate.

We saw how Violet Sky's founder Hans Westerink makes delicious, pure, and mind-blowingly creative chocolate from cocoa bean to chocolate bar, and discussed his craft and vision with him. We also toured the arts innovation center where Violet Sky is located, had a delightful fresh local lunch, and took a short side trip to the beautiful campus of the University of Notre Dame, all in South Bend, Indiana, 95 miles (153 km) from Chicago.

Be sure to scroll all the way down for lots of photos from this very special day trip, Labor Day 2017, plus excellent student commentary at the end, along with more photos!

Front row: yours truly Valerie Beck, Mikaela Turner, Benedita Silva Pinto, Kadisha Mukhamejanova, Michael Wulfstat.
Back row: Nuno Duarte Silva, Francisco Ricaurte, Sean Johnson, Martim Castro, Baptiste Perillat.
Behind the back row: our train from Chicago to South Bend!

Violet Sky is located in South Bend, Indiana, around the curve of Lake Michigan from Chicago, and we had a very pleasant train ride there and back.

Chocolate maker Hans Westerink is a dear client of my business Chocolate Uplift; I distribute his chocolate bars to stores like Hannah's Bretzel in Chicago, and I include his magnificent creations in some of my craft chocolate subscription boxes and at many of my speaking engagements. At age 28, Hans is already one of the top craft chocolate makers in the world, known for bold, inventive chocolate, and was my 2016 Chocolate Maker of the Year!

It is always a pleasure to see Hans, and it's an honor to work with him!

A-Listers and I had a such a marvelous time on our private tour of Violet Sky Chocolate in sweet South Bend! Hans demonstrated how he crafts chocolate from bean to bar, starting with:

• roasting raw cocoa beans, 
• then winnowing (de-shelling) them, 
• grinding them for 3 - 5 days nonstop, 
• adding cane sugar to the cacao to make chocolate - no soy lecithin or oils or other nasties! Just cacao and sugar -- all you need! 

Then:

• Hans tempers the chocolate,
• he molds the chocolate, 
• he wraps each chocolate bar by hand - sometimes with the help of his dear younger sister Gaby - and 
• voila! 
• Often during the process he will add ultra creative inclusions to the chocolate bars, such as his handmade za'atar blend of Middle Eastern spices like thyme, sesame, and sumac, which was a hit in one of my recent subscription boxes!

You see, Violet Sky meets my "S" criteria: the chocolate is sustainable, slavery-free, soy-free, small-batch, and scrumptious! And it goes beyond, into being truly sensational!

chocolate molds at Violet Sky Chocolate

colorful chocolate wrappers, all to be folded by hand, for that unique Violet Sky style

color and cacao

Hans was an informative and gracious host, letting our outstanding group of sharp, inquisitive, and energetic students ask many thoughtful questions, and letting us taste different stages of the chocolate making process, starting where chocolate starts: raw cacao and then roasted cacao. The raw Cacao Verapaz of Guatemala cocoa beans taste nutty - cacao is after all a nut, as the seed of the fruit of the cacao tree - and the same beans roasted taste like brownies, due to chemical reactions as that's what cooking and baking is about!

Side note with an easy recipe tip from me to you: put raw cacao nibs on your grapefruit in the morning, along with Violet Sky Chocolate, for a superfood supernova breakfast - my favorite!

Back to our excursion: Hans also allowed us to taste chocolate straight from the melangeur, that is, the cacao grinder - tasting chocolate during the grinding process is one of life's richest pleasures! The melangeur had been grinding the cacao for 4 days to turn it into chocolate. You might say that time is an ingredient in cooking and baking, and in craft chocolate.

Hans generously provided delicious chocolate bars and vegan and non-vegan truffles for us to sample and compare, such as his luscious new dark milk chocolate, a wondrously complex barrel-aged chocolate, and a sizzling habanero chocolate (#aztecrevivalism!), plus bars to take home.

Hans explains roasting with his test batch roaster

Cacao is ground in the melangeur 3 to 5 days nonstop to become craft chocolate

Tasting chocolate straight from the melangeur is a deeply delicious and special treat that we all enjoyed!

Who didn't lick their spoons clean??

Vibrant and hand-wrapped Violet Sky Chocolate bars

We tasted truffles, vegan truffles, and 3 types of chocolate bars, all made at Violet Sky, and all amazing

Happy chocolate smiles!

Hans also took extra time to give us a tour of the arts and innovation center, LangLab, where Violet Sky is located. South Bend is experiencing a cultural and business renaissance, in part through the maker movement, and Violet Sky is an exciting part of that!

This way for Violet Sky Chocolate, Zen Cafe Coffee Roasters who share a roaster with Violet Sky, and space for other makers, musicians, and artists of all kinds 

Outside LangLab

Inside LangLab

After our behind-the-scenes and thorough tour of Violet Sky Chocolate, fascinating discussions with Hans, and delicious chocolate tasting, we gratefully and excitedly received chocolate bars to take with us, and almost reluctantly headed to lunch - or maybe chocolate was lunch, and lunch was dessert!

It was hard to leave Violet Sky! We said goodbye to Hans for now, and headed to Purple Porch, a friendly South Bend food co-op that sells Violet Sky Chocolate, of course, where we made our own indoor picnic with vegetables, cheese, charcuterie, and more, mostly local. Our group could sit and chat, and enjoyed wonderful community and camaraderie.

After a lovely lunch, we took quick Lyft rides to the University of Notre Dame, to explore this beautiful campus and let our students experience an example of a large American residential research university.

I'd called the week before to see if we could have an official tour of the university, but the day of our visit was Labor Day, so understandably no tours were running. Instead, some research for our group:

Founded in 1842, and enrolling women starting in 1972, Notre Dame is a Catholic-based university with over 12,000 students, including over 8,000 undergrads, with around 80% of college students involved in volunteer work alongside their studies. 

The picturesque campus is spread out over 1,250 acres, so we couldn't see everything during our limited time there, but some of our group went to visit the vast and popular football stadium (please send photos! : ), while another part of our group enjoyed highlights such as the Golden Dome main building, and the beautiful church, Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Notre Dame's famous Golden Dome through the trees

Inside the Golden Dome

Inside the Basilica, the organist began to play just as we walked in

Notre Dame vista

We could have explored many more treasures on campus, but our train schedule summoned us back. On the train ride home, we snacked on some of my homemade trail mixes that I brought for our group, and some students slept, dreaming dreams of violet skies perhaps, as we rolled through the end of a fabulous day-long A-List adventure!

Tickets on the app, out and back

We passed through charming #midwestmoment landscapes, enjoying views of the beauty of the same Earth that gives us cacao for chocolate!

I love using almonds and pistachios in my homemade trail mixes - and Violet Sky Chocolate! 

Student feedback:

Everything was so nice, from understanding the Violet Sky process bean to bar, to know the incredible campus of Notre Dame, we had a glorious day with a fantastic international group. The details of the preparation, the artistic Langlab building, everything is special there. Adding this, the shared lunch was also top moment of the day, plus knowing a beautiful different America with the amazing enormous and charming campus of Notre Dame. People, culture and craft chocolate made this day remarkable and delicious. Never forget: September 4th! :)
I love how Hans decorates the bars, the presence of the color and the simplicity of it, as with the ingredients that all is needed for chocolate "Cocoa beans + sugar + nothing else = pure delicious chocolate". What a simple and delicious formula! How chocolate can be something simple, beautiful, colorful, and elegant, as the "simplicity is the first step to elegance”.
It was very kind of you giving us this opportunity. It was such a nice day. Thank you so much for giving us these opportunities, it is a beautiful way of volunteer!
Thank you too for sharing your passion and to uplift us in a better way.
- Martim Castro

What I loved the most about our visit on the past Monday was the simplicity of both the place and Hans'! It was incredible to see how such fine and delicious chocolate is actually made with such simple ingredients. In addition, what did impressed me a lot too was how complex and time consuming the chocolate making process actually was! I understood that Hans does put a lot of thought and love in it. In fact, I got mesmerized with the way he expresses himself by what he does with the chocolate! Everything has a meaning and it is impressive to see a person who clearly is more of a shy and introvert type to share his emotions and ideas so naturally through his amazing product! It was really inspiring!
- Benedita Ribeiro da Costa Silva Pinto

 I love what Hans said about why he named is chocolate Violet Sky: remember to look up, soak in the moment, and be glad that you're here, embrace purity and transparency.
-Mikaela Turner

What a pleasure to spend time with A-Listers, and client!
Front: Martim, Benedita, Francisco, yours truly, Mikaela, Kadisha.
Back: Nuno, Baptiste, Sean, Michael, Hans.
See you next time!

Onward and upward!