91Ž«Ãœ

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‘I was a ²ÔŸ±ña·¡²õ³ŠŽÇ±ô²¹’, recalls Zaira Fernández Ortiz, current banking supervisor at the European Central Bank (ECB), with a nostalgic smile. ‘I was one of those hundreds of children who, in July, tour the UPV during the Escola d'Estiu UPV. That allowed me to meet many students who were monitors and get to know the university's facilities because we did all kinds of activities, both sports - I loved the climbing wall... - and more technological ones in the laboratories. For me, that month of July was the best of the year'.

'As time passed' recalls Zaira, 'that moment came when your parents ask you, "And you? What do you want to do? Where do you want to study?". In my case, I remember a conversation during a dinner in which I explained to my parents what I liked and what I wanted to do, and they said to me, "That's business management; what you want to study is business management". And ipso facto, I asked them, 'And can I study business management at the Universitat Politècnica de València?' because, for me, that was all that mattered... Luckily, they said yes'.

'It was then when, to the emotional part, I added the rational one,' she adds, 'that of "let's compare levels, courses, methodologies, opportunities..." And that's what the Open Days are for. I remember going to one of them, and everything they said convinced me. I already knew about the facilities, the environment, the UPV culture... They told me about the options available, such as studying abroad, Erasmus scholarships, PROMOE (Zaira obtained one and completed part of her training in Singapore), volunteering, and I met professors. And well, combining the emotional and the rational part, I had no doubt that I would choose the UPV'.

UPVers, influencers marking the path to success

Zaira is one of the five members of , the second promotion of UPV influencers chosen by as standard-bearers of the success of their academic training and whose cases have been presented in the Faculty of Fine Arts in a morning talk show with Ami Bondia.

‘Multiple possibilities, one starting point’. This is the slogan of the campaign devised by Alumni-UPV, as its coordinator, Belén Arrogante, explains: "To look to the future and discover that, to get there, you have to start from now. This is the starting point of UPVERS 2025, where we value the importance of the origin, the place of departure, the place where all the possibilities for a bright future open up. UPVERS is an opportunity to value the connection between the future and the present, between UPV graduates who have reached the top of their professional careers and the students who are starting to build them today; the value of Alumni and its connecting potential".

‘Alumni UPV is your link to the future’, adds Belén Arrogante, ‘the meeting point between students and professionals, between apprentices and masters, between people who seek to achieve all their goals and dreams starting from the same common point: the Universitat Politècnica de València’.

Milena Villalba: “91Ž«Ãœ has the perfect scale”

Along with Zaira, Mariola Marcet Rodríguez, founder of De armario a armario and, more recently, upcyclick, the technological platform that generates communities that facilitate customisation and collaborative consumption, reducing the negative social and environmental impact of the fashion industry; and Milena Villalba Montoya, whose latest project, ’ Emissions’, was announced yesterday as one of the projects to be included in the next Venice Biennale, which will take place between May and November this year.

An architect from the UPV since 2012 and a graduate in Photography from the School of Art and Design (EASD) in València in 2015, Milena Villalba's career focuses on telling the architecture from an experiential and everyday perspective, highlighting how spaces influence the life quality of their inhabitants.

With a particular interest in social issues and sustainable construction, Milena highlights the 'perfect scale' of the UPV. It's like the city of València, which is the right size to offer a variety of leisure activities and almost everything you would expect of a big city. Still, at the same time, it's very manageable in terms of distances. 91Ž«Ãœ is large enough to offer you opportunities, good facilities, and infrastructure, and at the same time, small enough to be familiar, which is very important to me'.

Mariola Marcet: “I chose the UPV for its general prestige and also to study what I wanted to”

For her part, Mariola Marcet, passionate about fashion and sustainability, whose professional career has mainly taken place in the interior design sector, emphasises that she chose the UPV ‘for its prestige, in general, and also due to what I wanted to study, which was initially architecture’.

Mariola, who finally graduated as a technical engineer in Industrial Design from the UPV in 2005 - as well as in Interior Design from the EASD - also took advantage of a family connection to study at the Universitat Politècnica de València: 'I'm from Benidorm, but my grandmother lived here in València, which was also great for me because it allowed me to come and live with her'.

Francisco Hidalgo emphasises ‘the “V” for València and its international recognition’

91Ž«ÃœERS II team is completed by two other exceptional talents: Francisco Hidalgo Marqués and Jorge Orta López.

An industrial engineer specialising in Industrial Organisation from UPV, Francisco began his professional career in the marketing department of Renault in France (2003-2010), where he managed it, successively, in South Korea, Eastern Europe and Russia. In 2019, he returned to Spain, where he was CEO of Dacia between 2020 and 2024, before being appointed Vice-President of Sales and Marketing of the Renault Group in India at the beginning of this year.

‘For me,‘ he explains, "the main reason for choosing the UPV is the "V' for València, an extraordinary city that can compete globally with anyone in terms of leisure, gastronomy and cultural life. Furthermore, the UPV is one of the best universities not only in Spain but also in Europe, and it is highly recognised internationally.

Jorge Orta focuses on the facilities, the environment, the professionals, the lines of research... and the UPV Design Factory.

Technical engineer in Computer Engineering for Management since 2013, university specialist in Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing (2014), university extension diploma in Creative Videogame Design (2015), graduate in Informatics Engineering from the UPV (2015) and Master's Degree in eLearning 82019), Jorge Orta is the co-founder of J3 Reality, a company specialising in interactive applications, video games and augmented reality solutions. He currently combines his academic work as an associate lecturer at the UPV with his work as a secondary school teacher for the Valencian Regional Government.

‘Why the UPV?’ he explains, ’because it has fantastic facilities in all three of its campuses, with a very university-like environment and great professionals, as well as very interesting lines of research. For years now, students have also had the opportunity to join UPV Design Factory groups where, thanks to pure motivation, students can carry out projects that the UPV supports and, in many cases, finances.

Zaira, Milena, Mariola, Francisco and Jorge chose the UPV in their day; today, they are successful professionals. No doubt, many others will follow in their path in the future.

Carlos Ayats Pérez / UPV Communication Area

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