"Astonished." That's how Guatemalan reporter Edna Rheiner felt while visiting top U.S. newsrooms to talk with outstanding reporters about their cutting-edge projects.

It wasn't simply that their work was impressive. She was thrilled that U.S. journalists took the time to share what they are working on, she told Núria Saldanha in this video. "That's invaluable."

Rheiner was part of a group of 15 journalists from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua last fall who gained new perspectives and refined ideas for their own innovative projects through the ICFJ program A Digital Path to Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Latin America. Since 2015, the program has trained 28 journalists in entrepreneurship, newsroom management, multimedia storytelling and data journalism. Participants attended intensive workshops in Washington, then spent a month developing their projects in digital newsrooms including The Washington Post, AJ+, Fusion and Mother Jones, before heading home to apply what they've learned.

"From the launch of Colombia's first LGBT news agency to the creation of a mobile-based alert service during extreme weather in Guatemala, the fellows turned pipe dreams into innovative and sustainable digital projects," says ICFJ Senior Program Director Johanna Carrillo, who has led the program since its inception. "And the U.S. hosts traveled to Latin America as part of the program and learned about this groundbreaking work firsthand."

For more information, visit A Digital Path to Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Latin America.