Tell us about something significant that you have done to improve yourself, in either your professional and/or personal endeavors.


Growing up along the coast of rural eastern Georgia, I started scuba diving when I was 14, the youngest legal age possible. I quickly realized I had a keen passion for the marine environment. I continued to build my qualifications, becoming a rescue diver by age 16, and adding specialty certificates in research, underwater photography, and wreck diving by age 17. Prior to starting university, I worked at the world’s only underwater hotel, Jules Undersea Lodge. This unique hotel requires one to dive underwater, 30 feet below the surface to enter the hotel. During this time, I became a divemaster, a qualification required for leading groups of divers. Thus at age 18, I began leading dives in and around the hotel and on the reefs and wrecks off Key Largo. Working at the underwater hotel was an enormously rewarding experience, particularly at such a young age. It allowed me to interact with and learn from a range of people from all across the world. It taught me to be open-minded and flexible, skills which prepared me for my future life in Macaronesia. Further, I quickly learned to be highly adaptable in new environments as no two dives are alike. Additionally, being a dive master and working at the underwater hotel helped me to react quickly to unexpected events. Ocean conditions are variable and unpredictable requiring flexibility, forcing you to always have a back-up plan for your initial back-up plan! I have logged over a thousand dives and during this time, I have seen divers risk not only their own safety but also cause damage to marine life through shear carelessness. These experiences enabled me to understand the dangers of diving and have strengthened my commitment to emphasize safety and to respect the marine environment. It led me to pursue my instructor’s license, which allowed me to share my passion for diving as well as teach new divers to be safe and respectful of the environment. Being a dive instructor also taught me a great deal about teambuilding, as it required me to build a ‘team’ of the group of divers I was leading. I had to be attentive to divers’ subtle comments, actions and potential worries as they were about to enter the water. The ability to quickly assess everyone’s level of skill and pair inexperienced divers with stronger divers was essential. It also taught me the importance of non-verbal communication since all communication while diving is done with hand signals. In this role, I honed my skills in understanding facial expressions as much of the communication involved being able to ‘read’ people’s faces to determine what they are thinking, a skill that has served me well in my current career. Transforming my hobby for scuba diving into the role of a dive instructor has taught me to plan for the unexpected, allowed me to quickly build effective, successful teams, and above all that you can’t succeed in anything unless you’re prepared to get a little wet!