Stirred by her dream, perseverance, and thrust, Filipina-American Maye Felices-McDonald etches her name as the owner and CEO of quite a few businesses in the US such as GETMEFIT Slimming Products, and Mama’s Angels Senior Care.

Maye’s voyage was not a piece of cake. She developed her entrepreneurial skills as a vendor of sweets and paper dolls in school when she was still a kid, as a caretaker of her mother’s sari-sari store (sundry store), and as a student assistant when she was in college while studying Ladderized Nursing.

In 2017, Maye started as a part-time caregiver who made her car home for eight long months. Eventually, she courageously established her own caregiving firm named Mama’s Angels Care and later on catered to and met the caregiving demands in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia starting with three caregivers to 49 healthcare providers at present. With this, she was also able to help fellow Filipinos by hiring them into her company.

As a dream-chaser, Maye capitalized on her 5Ps: Passion, Persistency, Perseverance, Positive Mindset, and the Power of Resilience which led her to the realization of her dreams which she found in the US.

As her business considerably grew, it became distinguished in the US, and in September this year, she proudly ramped up her well-known product on the esteemed New York Fashion Week runway putting in high spot her advocacy of unifying health, wellness, fitness, and fashion and her drive to take part in her young ambassadors’ will of fostering mental health awareness to the young ones.

Maye toiled and worked hard in achieving her dreams making her more than deserving of receiving laurels for her successful business undertakings along the lines of Modern CEO, Most Influential Young CEO for Business and Entrepreneurship, and Best Slimming Product of USA.

In the 100-year history of Miss America, 19-year-old Brían Nguyen has become the first transgender contestant to win a local Miss America Organization beauty pageant, Miss Greater Derry 2023.

The teenager from New Hampshire won a crown, title, and scholarship. She ecstatically wrote on her Instagram, “No words can describe the feeling of having the opportunity to serve my community and represent my community for the very first time at Miss New Hampshire.” 

Nguyen continued, “I am so honored to be crowned your new Miss Greater Derry 2023, and I am thrilled to show you all what I have up my sleeves. This will be an amazing year.”

Founded in 1986, the Miss Greater Derry Scholarship Program awards scholarships to young women in the Greater Derry area for academic skills, talent, character, community service, and poise.

The Miss Greater Derry Scholarship Pageant is also a preliminary event for the Miss New Hampshire Pageant and, ultimately, the Miss America Pageant.

As the new Miss Greater Derry, she recently attended the annual Best Buddies Champion Gala to support those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. $150,000 was raised over that night to help out their champion nominees. She will be working with Best Buddies New Hampshire throughout her reign.

“Growing the future has only just started. This industry will continue to surprise people,” says Philip Ross, co-founder of MycoWorks, a mycelium material founder and producer.

As the innovator of high-quality mushroom “leather” for the luxurious Hermes bags, the business acquired $187 million from Natalie Portman, John Legend, and General Motors and will soon cover the latter’s electric car interiors.

Ross unintentionally discovered leather-like material in reishi mushrooms, a fungus he farmed for his cancer and AIDS more than four decades ago. He then became a mycelium artist and featured his fungus-based works at famous museums.

According to Sophia Wang, co-founder of MycoWorks whom Phil met six years before they founded the firm while working together on art ventures, Ross’s discovery marked the “leather’s” birth to the globe.

Wang and Ross continued to discover more about mycelium and later realized that the material is enticing to buyers who don’t like synthesized contaminants and materials which are produced from animals.

Alongside raising their funding source, the company also conducted a groundbreaking at South Carolina Factory with the aim of attaining a sufficient supply of their fancy product.

With about 200 employees, Matt Scullin, the company’s CEO, said that the “Brands are making very significant changes to address what is really a growing demographic of people who want to buy sustainable products that have provenance and traceability and a lower carbon footprint, lower water use—and mycelium does all of those things.”

Compared to animal leather, the mushroom leather-like material is far more environmentally friendly as the former adds up to about a million tons of carbon dioxide which is tantamount to 30 million cars’ yearly emissions.

Despite environmental and animal issues, people prefer biomaterials or “next-gen” materials over the past decade making it in-demand as multi-billion dollars are invested in the industry.

Nonetheless, Hermes’ firm in France is soon to release its $4,200-worth “Victoria” bag made from MycoWorks’ amber-hued exquisite mycelium.

Despite having zero experience in baking, this mom entrepreneur was able to give birth to Ricci Chocolates, now branded as the “Home of the Best Tasting Truffles in Baguio City, Philippines” 

Mitchiko Liquete clarified that she is a dessert lover but never a chocolate fanatic. Initially having no interest in making desserts nor in cooking, she capitalized on believing in herself with the vision of making her products look off-the-peg.

To better her craft, Mitchicko heeded the DTI’s Kapatid Mentor ME (KMME) free online training program in September 2022 to learn about branding and marketing while in a ‘hit and miss’ process in chocolate-making, which she considered as a great help for business-starters like her. 

Mitchiko’s 100% homemade premium chocolates got 20 to 30 boxes of sales per day that eventually reached over and above 2,000 to 3,000 packs weekly and enabled the company to supply more than 100 resellers and distributors nationwide.

The success of Mitchicko’s purely hand-crafted, first-class, and domestically produced chocolates paved the way for opening four stores and actualized $17,000 income in one year alone making Mitchiko more than proud.

She plans to expand her sweet business by making Ricci Chocolates visible in every mall in the Philippines.