Senior Portrait: Jenn Tate

She has the dream resume for a college-bound student.

What college wouldn’t want the senior class president, the student government secretary, vice president of the band, member of the school’s peer mentors and a huddle leader for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes? She also performs with the symphonic band and the jazz band.

But Jenn Tate won’t be going to college next year.

Instead, the Havre de Grace High School senior will be opening a photography business while taking a few business classes at either Harford Community College or Cecil Community College.

Tate’s love for photography began the summer after sixth grade, when she traveled abroad as part of the People to People Student Ambassador program.

“I went to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I had my digital camera. It was kind of dinky. But I just wanted to take pictures of everything. I took pictures of every meal I ate,” she said. “The next summer I went with People to People to Spain, France and Italy. I did the same thing, took pictures of everything. It was just so awesome. When I got home I didn’t want to stop taking pictures, so I just kept doing it.”

She hasn’t stopped, really.

She even provided some photos to Patch this year for the .

Two Christmases ago, she got a camera upgrade to a Nikon D3000.

“I take it with me everywhere,” she said. “I take pictures of everything.”

Recently she shot a fashion show to raise money for girls in Cambodia. She practices the fashion shoots at home.

“I have four sisters and they’re great models,” she said. “Sometimes they get aggravated with me. My baby sister is very cooperative.”

The youngest Tate turned 1-year old last week.

Tate has plenty of photos left to shoot of her sisters. But she already has some shoots lined up for this summer.

“I already have a few senior portrait jobs lined up for friends who are juniors," she said. "They don’t want to pay $500.”

As for a business model, Tate is still pondering specifics. She’s not a big fan of staged photos.

“I don’t want to have a studio I don’t think,” she said. “I want to do lifestyle photography.”

She said Havre de Grace, with its many waterfront and history-themed backdrops, is perfect for that.

Tate knows Havre de Grace well. So well, in fact, her classmates don’t think she’ll ever leave. In the senior superlatives for the yearbook—which will come out in the fall—Tate was voted “Most Likely to Stay in Havre de Grace.”

In time, she hopes, photography will prove her classmates wrong.

“It’s so funny,” she said of the superlative vote. “Eventually, I do want to get out.”