Cristina Zenato

Cristina Zenato Instagram – Day 1 Question 1
A career path like no other!
In 1994, through a series of coincidences and choices, I landed in the Bahamas to complete scuba diving training, a dream since I was eight. Once here, I decided I didn’t want to go back. I was drawn to the island by the beauty of the ocean, the sharks I had met on my first dive and the lifestyle. I stayed because my heart found home, and my soul found happiness and peace.
My background is in hotel management and languages, art, history, & literature. It has nothing to do with STEM; I grew up with the notion that women were not allowed in STEM and other more male-oriented jobs like engineering.
I followed my other childhood dream: speaking all the languages of the world. I stopped at 5, but those languages & my hotel expertise allowed me to find a job to stay. In a week, I quit work, boyfriend, car. I was 22 years old & started from the bottom up. I tried to learn everything in my field, vertically by becoming a more advanced and trained diver & laterally by learning everything from regulator repair to photography, driving boats, & creating moorings. I read books about physics, physiology, & geology I used the little money I made to travel and learn from people working in the fields I was interested in. I kept informed with anything I could put my hands on, living on an island without computers and the internet. I found terrific mentors and tried to soak up as much as possible. Later, I turned back to the studies I never had access to, and that’s how I became a shark ecologist and behaviorist. Arriving where I am now took thirty years of daily work and dedication, overcoming significant challenges, and sticking to listening to my heart
My work is my passion, and my passion is my work; there is no distinct line.
By trade, I am a diving professional, and by calling a scientist. Loving something makes us want to protect it. It didn’t take much to see that sharks, ocean, caves, and even the pine forest were intrinsically connected and that damaging one would affect the other. Conservation is my lifestyle, not once a day action, but that’s for another post.
Archive image 1997 | Posted on 25/May/2024 17:56:36