CoverWallet Excellence Fellows 2021
By: Joanna Sypniewska
Tags: Tech, Careers, Scholarship, Opportunity, Young Talent

What’s our competitive advantage? Top Talent!

CoverWallet launched its Excellence program in 2019 to provide development and career opportunities to the brightest students in Spanish universities. Through a competitive application process, recipients of the grants are invited to complete a 6-month program in Spain and the US. The aim of these grants is to help our future leaders in Spain continue to expand their horizons and encourage them to take an active part in creating a future society that is more prosperous, innovative, and modern.

We strongly believe that Talent, that transforms knowledge into ideas and sets them in motion, is the engine of progress and modern societies.

We are looking for students in their last year of studies who are passionate about technology, admire change, and are not afraid of challenges. We seek talented individuals usually with a technical background interested in innovation with the revolutionary vision of the business.

We believe that talent is our power and the best way to deliver innovation and achieve growth. We care about and seek the best talent who is ready to bring the company's success to another level. This program is created for the best students and recent graduates of any area or discipline, who are in the top 5% of their class.

Our objective is to offer you the opportunity to begin your work experience in the field of technological entrepreneurship in a leading company in the sector and with exceptional characteristics in Spain, with highly qualified professionals in Technology, Marketing, Product, and Business.

This is for you if you are a top student, and you also have outstanding academic merits and pursued excellence in other areas: sports, music, math or physics olympiads, other degrees in parallel, or have contributed to impactful initiatives or NGOs to make the world a better place.

We are proud to present you our latest 12 Excellence Fellows:

Gonzalo Calleja Palacios

Gonzalo Calleja Palacios

Gonzalo joined Coverwallet as an Excellence Fellow within our Business Intelligence department.

Gonzalo previously worked as an intern for LenioLabs at Santiago de Chile, a startup focused on nearshoring frontend and backend data visualizations for companies in the Bay Area. He participated in the project of ensuring compliance with European GDPR Law across several databases.

Prior to that, he was part of the IE Technology Lab team in a student initiative to analyze and improve the customer experience at IE University by restructuring and optimizing the website and developing a chatbot. His first professional experience was back in 2017 when he worked as a Strategy Analyst intern at The Cocktail, a consultancy firm specializing in the design and execution of digital transformation projects, there, he offered analytical support to the team and helped in developing commercial proposals to clients.

When he graduated from school in 2015, he was the school’s representative for the Physics Olympics, this experience led him to study two years of engineering courses at ICAI University before enrolling in his current bachelor’s and focusing on Data Analytics. Gonzalo will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems Management from IE University in May 2021 with many honors (matricula de honor).

When Gonzalo is not working, he enjoys hiking, reading science fiction, and especially rock-climbing. For the last 2 years, he has participated in competitions in his local rock-climbing gym with varied success.

2. Isabel Moreno Mozos

Isabel Moreno Mozos

Isabel joined us this year as an Excellence Fellow within our European Sales Operations Department.

Isabel was previously an intern at Management Solutions, a consulting firm, focusing on the development of business solutions in risk management and operational efficiency. Prior to that, she was an audit intern at Mutua Madrileña, where she learned about the insurance industry and worked on data gathering and analysis.

Isabel holds a double degree in Business Management and Law from CUNEF. She also was an exchange student at the International College of Management in Sydney and at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. Isabel graduated in the top 3 of her class where she was a scholarship holder granted by CUNEF. She has also been granted 3 times the Excellence Scholarship of the Community of Madrid which is given to the students with the best academic record.

When Isabel is not working, she enjoys playing basketball and reading thrillers. She also enjoys hanging out with friends and traveling.

3. Eric Morales Agostinho

Eric Morales Agostinho

Eric joined us this year as an Excellence Fellow in the Data Science team.

Eric previously worked for a research group at the Psychology College of his university, focusing on an ADHD Diagnosis web app, developing the website, and doing all the data analytics.

Eric is finishing a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Autonomous University of Madrid awarded with 12 honors (matrícula de honor) and with one of the best academic records of the class. In addition, Eric has been awarded the Excellence Scholarship of Community of Madrid for three consecutive years and was in the top 5 out of 200 participants in the CTF CyberArena cybersecurity contest organized by Deloitte in 2020. He is also a member of the board of the Artificial Intelligence Association of his university as a volunteer.

When Eric is not working, he enjoys training calisthenics, trying new food, discovering local restaurants, and going hiking.

4. Paula Bernardo Fernandez

Paula Bernardo Fernandez

Paula joined us in the spring of 2021 as an Excellence Fellow in the Software Engineering team.

She carried out her master’s thesis about Haptic feedback for supernumerary limb control in the robotics department of Imperial College of London. Prior to that, she worked as an intern at the Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute, in the 3D Printing Laboratory, where she carried out her bachelor’s degree final project, investigating ways to immobilize limbs during radiotherapy using 3D prints tailored to the patient.

Paula holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from CEU-San Pablo University graduating in the top 3 of her class, and a master’s in Biomedical Engineering focusing on Neurotechnology from Imperial College London.

As a recognition for her excellent academic records and many courses with honors (matrícula de honor), she was awarded the Excellence Scholarship of Community of Madrid for two consecutive years. She also received the Rafael del Pino Foundation Excellence Scholarship to pursue her master’s degree at Imperial College London.

When Paula is not working, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, traveling, playing paddle, watching movies, and reading books.

5. Jorge Fernández Alfonso

Jorge Fernández Alfonso

Jorge joined us in January 2021 as an Excellence Fellow working in the Product Management team.

Before joining CoverWallet, Jorge was interning at GitHub as part of their Education working on products used by students and teachers worldwide. Prior to that, he completed a traineeship program at Huawei Technologies in China.

Jorge holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Valencia as one of the top students, and he spent a semester abroad at the University of Pennsylvania as a PROMOE scholar in 2020 with a GPA of 4.0/4.0.

Jorge has completed his studies in a high-academic-performance group at Technical University of Valencia (group of top students) and has explored his interests through multiple activities outside of the academic syllabus.

During Fall 2018, Jorge received the first prize at IDEAS UPV Challenge, an undergraduate entrepreneurship competition. Jorge has been elected as a student representative for three years, and also received the “Best Overall Project” and “Best Community Impact Proposal” prizes at Hackathon Castellon 2018.

In his free time, he also leads the Association for Computing Machinery at his university, a student developer community on campus, he helps organize a festinFor, a student-run conference at the intersection of liberal arts and technology, and he co-hosts a podcast interviewing Hispanic tech leaders.

6. Irene Contreras Lorenzo

Irene Contreras Lorenzo

Irene joined us on February 2021 as an Excellence Fellow in our Salesforce Engineering team.

Irene is a 4th-year student of a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid. In her junior year, she was an exchange student on the Global E3 program in 2019 at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, United States.

Irene participated in a Hackathon last month and she and her group won the first prize. In 2017 Irene obtained the Excellence Scholarship of the Community of Madrid.

Irene recently received her certificate for C1 level of English. She prepared for this exam with a course of the British Council thanks to the Banco Santander Scholarship: Becas Santander Languages. During her degree in Software Engineering, she has completed 10 courses with honors (matrícula de honor), obtaining one of the highest GPAs in her class and placing herself in the top 3%.

When Irene is not working, she enjoys trying new food, traveling, hanging out with friends, and playing volleyball.

7. Ignacio Garrido Sevilla

Ignacio Garrido Sevilla

Nacho joined us in February 2021 as an Excellence Fellow within the Software Engineering team.

Nacho is starting his career path with us, trying to learn as much as he can about technology and business, his two passions.

He is still studying for a double degree in Computer Science and Business Administration at the Technical University of Valencia. As a last-year student, he is facing the end-of-degree projects, where he is developing a medical support system for space exploration.

In 2015, Nacho won the Valencia Mathematics Olympics, being awarded the ESIC Excellence Prize. Later, in 2016, he finished high school with honors (matrícula de honor), obtaining a scholarship for his freshman year. At university, Nacho has obtained 40 honors (matrícula de honor) between 2016 and 2020, he won the best entrance grade prize of his promotion and the best academic record of his double degree in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Also, he enrolled in the Debate Club of his university, participating in two National Debates at Barcelona and Córdoba, reaching in both of them the semi-finals.

When Nacho is not working, he enjoys trying new food, watching tv shows, going out with friends, and traveling to new countries (which he hopes to keep doing soon).

8. Alejandro Sanchez Sanz

Alejandro Sanchez Sanz

Alejandro joined us in October 2020 as an Excellence Fellow in the Software Engineering team. After completing the fellowship, he got hired as a Junior Software Engineer.

Before joining CoverWallet, Alejandro was interning at Naudit HPCN, which offers proactive and reactive advanced tools and solutions in network monitoring and desktop supercomputing environments. He could learn about and work more on the computer networks, by software development and YouTube analysis.

During his childhood, Alejandro has won several chess awards at city and province-level in Madrid (3 times 2nd position and 3 times 3rd position). In 2014, he was one of the winners of the Mathematics Spring Contest of the Complutense University of Madrid. Later, in 2015, Alejandro finished high school with honors (matrícula de honor), obtaining a scholarship for his freshman year. He also obtained that year the Excellence Scholarship of Community of Madrid due to his grade of 13.23/14 on the national university admission exam.

At university, Alejandro has passed all the courses of his double degree, two of them with honors (matrícula de honor), and with a global average grade of 8.21. In 2017 and 2018, he and his team won “Salesianos de Atocha” and two bronze medals of basketball in the Under 21 highest league of Madrid. In 2020, Alejandro and his team “Equipo A” reached the finals of II National Cyber League, a cyber-security competition organized by Guardia Civil, ending up in 12th position.

Alejandro holds a double degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He also was an exchange student on the Erasmus+ program from late 2018 to mid-2019 at AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, Poland.

In his free time, he loves doing sports, especially playing basketball and chess. He also enjoys hanging out with friends and watching tv series.

9. Julián Stiven Gutiérrez Jiménez

Julián Stiven Gutiérrez Jiménez

Julian joined us as an Excellence Fellow in the Product Management team. After completing the fellowship, he joined full-time as an Associate Product Manager.

Before CoverWallet, he was interning at Gnommostudios as a Mobile Application Developer.

In 2015, Julián finished high school with honors, obtaining a scholarship for his freshman year. At university, Julián has obtained several honors (matrícula de honor) between 2016 and 2020, he won the best entrance grade prize of his promotion in 2015 and the best academic record of his double degree in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

He holds a double degree in Computer Science and Business Administration at the Technical University of Valencia where he was recognized as the top 5% student.

Julian’s favorite thing in life is definitely music, he doesn’t play any instrument but he sings. He is a fan of football, both watching and playing, cycling, and series — always hooked on one — currently “The Boys”. He loves poetry and he does also write from time to time. His favorite author is Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.

10. Johan Estiven Santamaria Lopez

Johan Estiven Santamaria Lopez

Johan joined us in October 2020 as an Excellence Fellow in the Product Management team. After completing the fellowship, he joined full-time as an Associate Product Manager.

Before joining CoverWallet, Johan worked in Indra, a Spanish information technology and defense systems company where he was a Software Engineer focused on the development and maintenance of applications, working mainly in Java and JavaScript using Spring, Maven, BD Oracle, and ZK.

From 2009 to 2016, Johan was an elite athlete who played in the youth academy of Valencia C.F. among others. In 2013 he was awarded the extraordinary award for academic achievement being one of the best students in his field. In 2015, he finished high school with honors (matrícula de honor). At university, Johan has obtained five honors mentions (matrícula de honor) in his double degree between 2015 and 2020, always being one of the top of the class.

Johan holds a double degree in Computer Science and Business Administration from the Technical University of Valencia. Currently, he is enrolled in the master’s program in Computer Science at the same university.

In his free time, he loves to practice sports, watch anime series and go hiking in the mountains. In the summer he enjoys swimming in the Jucar river.

11. Sara Lerma Sanchez

Sara Lerma Sanchez

Sara joined us as an Excellence Fellow in the Software Engineering team and after a few months, she became a Junior Software Engineer.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the Technical University of Valencia where she was recognized as one of the top-performing students. These days she’s completing the master’s program at the same University in the Computer Science field.

Before joining CoverWallet, she was interning in Cleop in the Engineering department.

When not working, Sara is playing tennis, paddle tennis, or hiking in the nearby mountains. She’s a fan of ASMR sounds, it’s her way to disconnect. She enjoys hanging out with her friends and playing table football at the local bar.

12. Laura Blanco Martinez

Laura Blanco Martinez

Laura joined us as an Excellence Fellow in the Marketing team and recently she became a Customer Acquisition Analyst.

Before joining CoverWallet, she was interning at Pernod Ricard as a Price Analyst and then at DS Smith, as a Business Analyst, which gave her a solid base for further professional development.

In 2014 Laura achieved a Cambridge award for the highest grade in the World in A-Level Spanish Language, and later on in 2015 another one for the highest grade in Spain AS Level English along with multiple internal awards. In parallel, she also received the Excellence Scholarship of Community of Madrid throughout her secondary and degree-level education (2015–2019). For her Global Bachelor’s degree, she was part of the TOP Program Scholarship (Santander Bank & UEM 2015–19) and graduated with honors (matrícula de honor), first in her class. She also recently graduated with her masters’ degree under EAE’s Excellence Scholarship Program.

Laura holds a Global Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Commercial Management from the European University of Madrid. Additionally, she completed the master’s in Digital Marketing and E-commerce at EAE Business School. In 2018, she took part in an Erasmus exchange program at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Hamburg, Germany.

In her free time, she studies languages, and recently she started learning Chinese. Laura also enjoys dancing Latin style and casually cooking, a hobby and tradition that runs in her family.

Would you like to know more about our Excellence Fellowships?

Here you can find more details about the program: What you should know about Excellence Fellowships at CoverWallet?

Do you feel like you could be our next Excellence Fellow? Contact us and tell us your story!