Hidden Gems: Meet Cecilia Zapata-Harms of Palmetto InnovaSphere, Inc.

Voyage South Carolina Magazine: Today we’d like to introduce you to Cecilia Zapata-Harms

Hi Cecilia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

I guess we should start by saying that I am from a military family. I’m an only child – my father was in the Navy and my mom started out as a homemaker but eventually worked as administrative support for some companies. Being a military family, we lived all over the world – Okinawa, Japan, Germany, Puerto Rico, Spain. My parents somehow (especially my Mom) wanted some stability for me, knowing how important it is for me to have a really good education and discipline, but also the interaction with other kids my own age. I guess they were really forward thinking. I don’t know how they did it, with very limited income, but they managed to enroll me to a private Catholic school for girls in Spain. I lived there during the school year and in the summers or holiday breaks, I hopped on a military flight with my Dad. It wasn’t a boarding school – not the posh kind anyway. The school was like a convent. We were surrounded by farmland, farm animals, gardens and all the instructors were nuns. Looking back, I really appreciate this experience. It taught me to be self-sufficient and the discipline I learned with my studies was priceless.