Severna Park Home To Successful Models

By John Singleton

It happened on a routine family vacation to New York City. A stranger began to follow Severna Park residents John and Anne Dannenberger and their three daughters. When they turned down on an unfamiliar street, there he was waving a business card at them. He asked if one of their daughters might be interested in professional modeling.

“We were all sort of creeped-out… not used to New York City. We were still nervous about just taking the subway,” recalled Anne Dannenberger. “By the time we got home we kind of shrugged it off, but we held onto the card for a couple of months. It turns out the guy was legitimate… from the Elite Modeling Agency, one of the top agencies in the world,” she recalled with a laugh.

At the time, Jenna Dannenberger was just a photogenic 16-year old preparing for her junior year at Severna Park High School. Since then, she’s done covers for Teen Vogue, shoots for Real Simple Magazine, and ad campaigns for Lancome and Bath and Bodyworks.

Although Jenna’s path to supermodel stardom was rather quick, not every career strikes like a thunderbolt. For Patricia Quasney, her career as a model and actress started when she was a student at Towson University and gradually gained momentum over time.

“Acting and modeling have been like a business that I’ve built up over the years. After graduation from college, I went to California for a few months and did a graduate film at USC to get some on-screen experience,” stated Quasney, a graduate of Northeast High School in Pasadena. “Then I did work for Maryland Public Television in children’s programming, and it has been a full-time job ever since.”

Quasney, who is known in the modeling business as Patricia Coleman, has done national television commercials for Toyota and Domino’s Pizza, local TV spots for Bathfitters, and magazine spots for Stuart Kitchens. She has also had small parts in several large Hollywood productions such as “Tin Men,” “Diner,” and “My One and Only.” She also had a speaking role on the television show “Homicide Life on the Streets.”

These homegrown models know distinction between runway modeling and commercial modeling. The runway variety is most often associated with the term ‘supermodel’ because of the physical height and training of the women who stroll the catwalk. Most supermodels measure at least six-feet tall and earn multi-million dollar incomes.

“A good deal of Jenna’s work is done online with companies like JC Penney, Macy’s and Kohl’s,” shred mother Anne Dannenberger, who is herself a graduate of Severna Park High School. “Online work pays the bills. New York is an expensive city.”

Jenna Dannenberger, now 22, considers herself not only a commercial model, but also a self-employed businesswoman who is responsible for managing her own career decisions in a high-pressure industry. She’s also taking online college courses in graphic design. Jenna’s portfolio of modeling work can be found on www.musenyc.com.

Patricia Quasney has parlayed early acting and modeling ventures into a self-made business enterprise that most recently evolved into some voice-over work for the international television and radio campaign for Pandora Jewelry. To learn more about Patricia Quasney, visit her website at www.pattycoleman.com.