Alumni Profile: Michael Schmidt Gernez

Michael Schmidt Gernez, ’91, and her husband ,Christian, own and operate a sustainable tour company, Sendero Panama , in the Republic of Panama and she is the Executive Director of an non-governmental organization called APTSO (Panama’s Association for Sustainable Tourism).

Michael and Christian met while on vacation in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. Christian had been working for National Geographic Expeditions as a naturalist guide for many years. Michael seized the opportunity to travel with the National Geographic and four Panamanian guides; she was exposed to a career that she had never known about, the naturalist guide. Her experience with guiding in California as mountaineering, rock climbing, kayaking, and skiing guide was all adventure sports. She never associated the guiding community with one that combined working in the outdoors with teaching and inspiring while surrounded by intellectuals both wanting to learn and share expertise. Her eyes were opened to a whole new world.

She returned to the U S for six months after this trip. She quickly made the decision that she wanted to see if she had what it takes to be a naturalist guide in the tropics. She spent fifteen years behind a desk, working every moment for the weekend to get out skiing, camping, kayaking, rock climbing, mountaineering, etc. When she discovered the career of a naturalist guide, which involves working in the outdoors in an academic environment, she felt like she had finally found what she was meant to do. She and her husband own and operate Sendero Panama, and Michael is the Executive Director of APTSO (Asociacion Panamena de Turismo Sostenible). Michael states "both jobs allow me to use all the skills that I gained throughout my lifetime in the most positive and self-fulfilling way possible for me".

Michael Schmidt Gernez, ’91, with her husband Christian