Jesús Fernández Prieto: my story

I grew up in Madrid, in social housing, and I also studied on both sides: a religious school in Madrid and a few years at a secular state-subsidised school in Murcia; secondary school, vocational training and university in the public system; my MBA at a business school, and now my Master's at ISSEP, which is private. A neighbour in Leganés, Moja, taught me early on to look at the world from outside Europe and to want to learn languages.

I come from vocational training. In early 2017, aged nineteen, I did my internship in Cork, Ireland, thanks to Fundación Montemadrid. Those three months changed everything: that summer I joined my first youth exchange in Italy and then did an internship in Vicenza. In 2018 came Gaziantep, in southern Turkey, where I volunteered with Syrian and Iraqi refugees. It was my first close contact with a humanitarian crisis and with the Arab world.

Between 2017 and 2019 I studied a higher vocational degree in Tourism, with an internship in Bordeaux, and in 2019 I started Political Science at UNED. That same year we presented UPlanet. In February 2020, at a training course in Romania, I learned to write Erasmus+ projects. That is where it all began.

Then the pandemic arrived. I left university after a year, moved to Murcia, worked three months in the fields and ended up building Cómprate un Cactus, an online shop, with a local grower. That is how I got into digital marketing. From 2020 to 2024 I was part of Rotary, and I presided over a Rotaract club in 2021–22.

I did an MBA specialising in digital marketing, went to Poland with Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs and in 2023 set up InmoHackers, a marketing agency for the real estate sector. I worked with startups, developers and agencies, including in the Dominican Republic. It went well, but it was not my place.

I left it and spent 2024 travelling through Asia and Europe. That summer I volunteered in Uganda, and then came back to Madrid to stay and do what really drives me: working with young people and with organisations that want to change something. Today I run Plusers, train youth workers, co-founded Clappin' Plus and Iuvenis Sport Plus and work with UPlanet in Mauritania. In 2026 I was named an Erasmus+ Ambassador.

Outside work I have always done sport: gym, boxing and swimming. I ran the Murcia half marathon. I like to look after my health, my rest, my family and my friends.