Ahmed Al-Janabi

Location: Medellín, Colombia Age: 23Occupation: Team member of The Journey NetworkLife Ambition: To be a Life-long learner.

Your Big Year Finalist

Marcela is a passionate traveller and social activist. Marcela is part of the core team for “The Journey Network”, a platform for travellers that helps turning every journey into a personal quest. Her passion for travel and for intercultural meetings translates into a big love for foreign languages – she is currently fluent in five languages and has started learning German, her sixth language. Marcela also has a strong interest in alternative education for higher education; she is currently part of the UnCollege gap year programme in San Francisco and she is working on a documentary, EduAction, exploring various programmes around the globe which offer alternative education paths. Marcela is currently working on the creation of the project “Zero Food Waste”. She is also an Alumni and staff member of The Phoenix Institute. Finally, Marcela has previous volunteering experience both with ex-guerrilla members and the homeless in Colombia, supporting them into entering new paths in life and getting out of the violent circles in which they had ended up.

Marcela Fernandez

WHY IS SHE IN THE FINALS?• She submitted 13 interviews, more than twice of the target set for the Your Big Year competition. Highlights include among others her interviews with Alvaro Uribe, ex-President of Colombia; Guy Kawasaki, special advisor of the Motorola business unit of Google and Jon Lee Anderson, war reporter for the The New Yorker.• She demonstrated a high level of creativity in every step of the competition, from introducing herself from the mountains of Colombia to pitching that she deserved a place in the finals through a video shot in Bratislava.

I N I T I A T I V E