On the 2nd of September World Merit made the exciting revelation of the 12 Champions who are to fly to San Francisco in November, and compete for the grand prize of becoming the World Merit Global Ambassador. Out of a pool that was once over 60,000 millennials, Your Big Year selected the most talented, driven, and dynamic individuals from nine different countries. Over the last three months these individuals have proven that they are of Merit
Our Champions are:
Ahmed Al-Janabi from Baghdad, Iraq who is a 22 year old medical student and civil society activist. He is highly engaged in the human rights field, has represented Iraq in the UN Developmental Program project for Youth Participatory Governance, as well as participated in the Iraqi Parliament Association. Click here to view his full profile.
Karyssa Zavala is 23 years old from Texas, USA. She is a passionate advocate for agriculture and serves as a Thought for Food Ambassador for Texas A&M University. She was sponsored by Syngenta to attend the 2012 One Young World Summit in Pittsburgh, as well as selected by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute as a finalist for the 2013 Public Policy Fellowship in Washington, D.C. Click here to view her full profile.
Veronica Cho, a 20 year old South Korean/Canadian, is the founder and director of Presidential Girl, which is a non profit organization aiming to empower girls living in poverty. She was the South Korean delegate of the 2012 G(irls)20 Summit, and has spent the last year in rural South Korea teaching English. Click here to view her full profile.
Zekar L. Payweyne from Liberia, is 26 years old and currently the Exectutive Director for Action Oriented Minds, a local youth organization. At the moment he is the Chairman of the Movement Against Violence, and the National Youth Chairman of the Coalition of Women, Youth and Students for Sustained Peace.Click here to view his full profile.
Nathalia Scherer is a 21 year old from Vicosa, Brazil. She is the Ambassador for CHOICE Movement, Brazil's largest network of university students engaged in social business, as well as a member of AIESEC, the largest organization of university students in the world.Click here to view her full profile.
Marc C. Kirst is a 21 year old from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is the founder and director of PROVE, a thriving personal and professional development program for young people in secondary and higher education. PROVE has already inspired over 1,000 people and has guaranteed its first successful international partnership. Click here to view his full profile.
Sintija Nicgale is 18 years old from Latvia. She is a member of the 3rd Latvian Youth Parliamentary Session and also a member of the 11th National Conference of European Youth Parliament Latvia. Click here to view her full profile.
Mahdi Hamdi, a 25 year old from Tunisia, is very active in the post revolutionary political life. Mahdi is also a software and web developer. He has appeared in radio interviews as well as national newspapers with his work in World Merit and in Tunisia. Click here to view his full profile.
Martina Buchal is a 25 year old Czech-Canadian. She is a court clerk with a passion in conflict resolution and peace building. She is working for the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation, PeaceBuild, Afghanistan: Pathways to Peace, and has currently started a social entrepreneurial business entitled theEMPOWEREDme, which will work to empower women and girls to reach their full potential. Click here to view her full profile.
Mark Aethen Agana is 26 years old from the Philippines. He co-founded T'nalak Youth Group, an organization that is devoted to help graduating students from public schools make it to college through a specialized tutorial. In 2008 he was named as the Most Outstanding Volunteer in the youth category by the United Nations Volunteers - Philippines. He has founded the Re-Store Project, which has secured funding from Groupon Philippines. Click here to view his full profile.
Michael Suplaag is 25 years old from the Philippines as well. He is an active youth leader and passionate writer. He has appeared in local and national TV channels, radio shows, and newspapers regarding his work in the Philippines and World Merit. Click here to view his full profile.
Sudha Subedi is a 21 year old passionate social worker formNepal. She is the initiator and organizer of the Cloth for All Campaign, a project aiming to bridge the gap between economically stable society and those facing poverty by addressing the problem of lack of clothing in Nepal. She is also the initiator of the Book for Village campaign, which has collected over 10,000 books to establish libraries in remote areas of Nepal. Click here to view her full profile.