Let’s hear it for the girls. In September, Jan Wichayanuparp, one half of the lady-led team behind the Valley’s favorite ice creamery Sweet Republic, traveled to Boston for the James Beard Foundation Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program. She was one of 20 women selected to attend the prestigious fellowship – a five-day business boot camp of courses, lectures and mentorship at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

“I was there with people who are James Beard [Award] nominees, who are running Food & Wine best restaurants. I was pretty awed by the people I got to learn with,” Wichayanuparp says. “As women, we do bring different things to the table, a unique viewpoint and execution, and I think that matters.”

Though there was “no free time” during the fellowship, Wichayanuparp made sure to tack a few days on to the end of her stay to taste test as much as she could in Boston, and gave us the highlights.