“Where it all began.”
Jennifer Ostrowski Strobel has emerged as a multi-talented, multi-faceted presence on the communication, media, and entertainment scene in New York. In her career, she has been a television reporter and entertainment interviewer, written and recorded songs while performing with her own band, written and produced a musical play, and written a book of poetry, a book about songwriting and the art of the song, and a book about women entrepreneurs in the entertainment business. As if this were not enough, she has completed all of the classes toward a doctorate in business communications and is working on her dissertation.
Jenn’s versatility is evident in a range of professional accomplishments and projects to date. Jenn has been featured in various independent films, music videos, and television commercials. She has also modeled, and danced and sung onstage.
In her position as a host for the ASN Shopping Network and later as a host/reporter for the Long Island Film Festival and Gala in its annual independent television documentaries, Jennifer had the opportunity to interview such celebrities as supermodel Christie Brinkley, actor Ralph Macchio of “The Karate Kid,” and Steve Guttenberg of “Cocoon,” to name a few. Jennifer has also worked for News 12 and ” The Montel Williams Show.”
As an assignment reporter and videographer for “LI News Tonight,” Jenn has interviewed noted sports figures like Jon Hall of the New York Jets and select members of the New York Islanders.
Jenn was a correspondent at the Emmy Awards for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She also appeared on “Your Health Matters,” where she hosted radio infomercials that were heard across the country. Jenn has also worked with on-air traffic and weather.
Jenn has been engaged in a trilogy of inter-related creative projects. She started writing songs, which inspired her to write “Talk About Songwriting,” a collection of interviews with prominent songwriters and a guide to the songwriting process. Soon, she found herself weaving some of the songs she had written into a musical play, “Straight to the Top,” which chronicled the experiences of an aspiring singer and dancer trying to break into show business. This show has been performed at venues on Long Island and Off-Off-Broadway in New York City. In addition to all this, Jenn has recorded a companion CD, and also produced a film version of the play.
While not strictly autobiographical, ” Straight to the Top” depicts the realities of the entertainment business that aspiring performers and artists encounter, sometimes to their shock and surprise. It was these lessons that Jennifer learned along the way that influenced her to form her own entrepreneurial LLC company to produce the play and her assorted creative projects.
It was this experience—and the insights she gained—that inspired Jenn to pursue a doctoral degree in business, with a special focus on women and entrepreneurship.
As a result of the interest created by her book and her play, Jenn has created a songwriter’s workshop. She has organized showcases for independent songwriters, and was a primary force in the creation of a new website for independent musicians, Llindie.com.
Jennifer has written a book about women entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry. An outgrowth of her doctoral work, the book is a study of how women such as Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart created business empires that spanned various media and arts while maintaining their own distinctive feminine images. Jenn believes strongly in the successful convergence of professional management skills and business acumen with artistic creativity and feminine character. She tries to uphold these convictions in all of her work.
Jennifer Ostrowski Strobel is a media professional who understands how both media and the media business operate. She knows how to craft compelling messages and tell engaging stories. With dynamism and infectious enthusiasm, she brings energy to everything she does. Her ability to connect with people and create uplifting messages in art and entertainment sets her apart. Jennifer is dedicated to using her skills, talents, and knowledge to make a meaningful impact on everyone she meets—or reaches—through her art.
As a reporter, Jenn came into contact with the problems of other peopleʼs lives and experiences, while the songs are reflective of exactly who she is. But this knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. She learned how to sell the music, the play, herself, and use entrepreneurial skills as a female professional. Since she discovered songwriting, she found that television reporting no longer satisfied a basic urge in herself, which is self-expression though both art and commerce. This basic discovery led to direct involvement with other songwriters and the writing of a musical stage play which reflects personal themes of dreams, ambition, encountering obstacles and new realities, failure (personal and professional), enlightenment, adjustment to new realities, discarding of old attitudes and assumptions, and resumption of the original dream on a higher, more enlightened ground. In the process, the individual songs are reflections of age-old themes in gender relations and self-fulfillment.