![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/exams-i-got-three-gcses-but-now-im-a-shark-scientist/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/130864136_vlcsnap-2022-01-13-04h38m41s893copy-1.jpg&description=Image source, Calvin Loa Image caption, Alice Cimino and Dan Abbott say friends commonly refer to them as the "shark couple" After leaving school with three GCSEs, Alice Cimino thought there was "no point" in pursuing her dream career as a shark scientist. Now, she is about to start a PhD after finishing a degree in marine biology. Alice, 35 from Pontypool, Torfaen, told the thousands of pupils waiting for their grades that results "don't define where you're going to go". She said she was "never really good at school" as she always "wanted to be out doing other things". She said she was left bedridden at 13 after being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and needed all her work brought to her. After getting GCSEs in English language, literature and art, she left school and moved to New York to pursue an acting career, working in bars and clothes shops to support herself. Image caption, Alice Cimino said she has been passionate about sharks since she was a child "But all of the time, whilst this was going on, I had this huge passion and love for sharks that started when I was a child. "I always thought in the back of my mind 'I want to be a marine biologist', but I didn't have any qualifications to do it. So I thought I might as well just continue trying to make it as an actress." However, after her dad died when she was 30, Alice decided to follow her lifelong dream. Image caption, Alice said she has seen sharks in the USA, the Maldives and the Bahamas She was living in Georgia and asked a university there what she could do to achieve it. "They said because I counted as a mature student, they wanted to use someone as a guinea pig and see how I did in doing a college degree even though I had no educational background'." After her first year studying marine biology at the University of West Georgia, Alice moved back to Wales to complete the second and third years of her degree at Swansea University - with her next step being a PhD. "I've gone from being an actress){kind=link}
After leaving school with three GCSEs, Alice Cimino thought there was “no point” in pursuing her dream career as a shark scientist.
Now, she is about to start a PhD after finishing a degree in marine biology.
Alice, 35 from Pontypool, Torfaen, told the thousands of pupils waiting for their grades that results “don’t define where you’re going to go”.
She said she was “never really good at school” as she always “wanted to be out doing other things”.
She said she was left bedridden at 13 after being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and needed all her work brought to her.