Jennifer Pazienza, Art Studio

Keswick Ridge, New Brunswick, Canada

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The daughter and granddaughter of Italian immigrants I was born in Newark, New Jersey. My folks died when I was young, eight and nine years old. That made education after high school a bit uncertain, but I did win a Mercury Monterey in a church raffle in February of my senior year and decided I could at least apply to one school. I thought that if I got in it would be a sign from God that I would somehow afford it! And so I did. I enrolled in William Patterson College of New Jersey, now William Patterson University, in the early 70s during the gas crisis that saw us lining up at the pumps on odd and even days according to our license plate number. After chauffeuring as many of my friends to and from school as possible that last semester, upon graduation I traded the Merc on a Volkswagen Bug and drove myself to college and work where I took a double major, a Bachelor of Education in Art and Waitressing!