Last Sunday, Go Negosyo arranged a simple dinner to welcome Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia, Jr. and the delegation of Filipino-American Youth Leadership Program (FLYPro). Just to give you an idea, FLYPro is a three-day program here in the Philippines that will allow our Filipino-American youth the opportunity to know more about their roots and how the country is doing. According to Ambassador Cuisia, many Filipinos in the US are naturalized citizens already. Based on the USA’s census data of May 2010, there are roughly 3.4 million Filipino-Americans. The biggest community is in California with 1.4 million.

The 10 exceptional young Filipino Americans from the United States and Guam are: Julien A. Baburka (Bloomingdale, Illinois) who is the executive assistant to the deputy chief of staff and chief operating officer for the Office of the Governor. Nico Barawid (Memphis, Tennessee) graduated from Yale University (with honors) in Economics and currently pursues Master of Public Policy. Rex C. Brown, Jr. (Daly City, California) is the product associate at Google Inc. and founded Baskets 4 Hope. Randy J. Cortez (Honolulu, Hawaii) is program specialist at the US State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Anthony D. Guevara (Houston, Texas) founded the Filipino American Council of South Texas. Melissa A. Medina (Washington D.C.) is the liaison and legislative assistant at US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Rachelle P. Ocampo (Levittown, New York) works as a health educator at Queens Hospital Center. Maria Bea Querido (Seattle, Washington) served as vice president of the Filipino Young Professionals in Washington, D.C. Dennis G. Rodriguez, Jr. (Tamuning, Guam) is on his second term as a senator in the Guam Legislature. Edward N. Santos (New York, New York) served in Teach for America where he worked with underserved students. Their age range from 23-34. They are proud Filipino-Americans working for the government, non-profit organization, foundation and private companies in the Unites States.

Ambassador Cuisia initiated the visit of the youth delegation to their native land to give them the best possible exposure to the many leading institutions and leaders in our country today. They visited high officials in government, legislators, business, social enterprise, NGOs and civic organizations so they can interface, get inspired and be informed. As we are currently in the US for a series of non-deal roadshow with US Funds, I have requested some of our inspiring Go Negosyo entrepreneurs like MDI Holdings CEO Myla Villanueva, French Baker’s Johnlu Koa, and Salt and Light’s Ardy Roberto to meet-up with the US delegates. I heard they had a very productive session as our CEO’s shared their amazing stories.

All of the delegates were inspired with the stories of our three invited entrepreneurs. Myla shared her struggles in business when she was 21 years old and how she had overcome the challenges she faced. She also told the delegates to do something that they are passionate about. Johnlu shared how he started to run a small bakery in Kapitolyo, Pasig, and how he developed when he was 29 years old a totally new innovative concept which is now called The French Baker. Johnlu highlighted during his talk that the Philippines is in a good state right now to reach its highest potential and we should grab every opportunity out there that appeals to us. Ardy reminded the delegates to embrace failure because failure builds character and patience. The three entrepreneurs emphasized the importance of keeping the right positive mindset as they pursue either a Negosyo or their respective advocacies and projects.

Myla, Johnlu and Ardy’s goal during their talk was to encourage the Fil-Am Youth to continuously support the Philippines through their own talents and capabilities, and to come up with initiatives that will strengthen the ties between the Fil-Ams and the local Filipino communities.

Our entrepreneurs believe that the Fil-Am youth delegates are the key to spreading the good news about our country. This program must have intensified further the passion to these young leaders to make a difference in their communities.

This coming July 13 at the Park Inn Hotel, our Go Negosyo team is going to Davao for the Magandang Business Advice with the country’s leading marketing educator Josiah Go. We are looking forward to seeing more SME’s join this session that will enable them to grow and level-up their business models.