Choosing between pursuing music and education was tough at first for Jennifer Perdue Frazier.
Her father was a country music recording artist in Nashville, she said. Frazier began singing at the age of 3, following in her father’s footsteps. She went on to record her first single called “Paper Dolls” at 7 years old.
“It went into Worldwide Country Music,” she said. “The German Country Music Association picked it up (and) rereleased it.”
When she graduated high school, she enrolled in National Park College, then known as National Park Community College. However, during her first semester, Frazier’s mother was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“My mom did not want me to go on the road and be a musician,” she said. “She wanted me to have an education. And at that time, of course, she was diagnosed with cancer as I was going into my first semester. However, she said ‘You’re gonna do this anyway.’
“During that time, she was on chemotherapy. I would threaten to drop out, she would say, ‘No, you’re gonna keep going or I’m gonna kick your butt.’ And as time went on, every semester I was there I was on the dean’s list.”
She received an associate of applied science in 2010, an associate of arts in 2012 as well as an associate of liberal science in 2012 from NPC.
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“That became my driving force because I knew it meant something to her,” Frazier said.
After graduating from NPC, Frazier enrolled in John Brown University online and started on her bachelor’s degree there, but her mother became so ill it was difficult for her to keep up with school and help take care of her mother, she said.
“So, I dropped out, regrettably,” she said.
In 2013, her mother died after going into remission and the cancer returning multiple times, she said.
After her mother’s death, it was a “really trying time” for her, she said. As a lifelong migraine sufferer, her headaches became even worse.
“Things were just not good for me, and I was a very angry young woman,” she said. “And I didn’t think about getting my bachelor’s degree for a long time.”
Since then, she started taking Nurtec for her migraines, and has now gone two years without having one, she said.
“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never gone this long without being deathly ill, having to go to the emergency room,” she said. “So, I wrote Biohaven, the pharmaceutical company, a letter and thanked them for a great product, and the response I got was that they made me one of their national spokespeople.”
It wasn’t until she got married to her husband Brent Frazier when she enrolled in John Brown University once again.
“We started talking one day, and he said, ‘I really think you should finish what you started there. This could be really good for you,'” she said. “And I thought about it and thought about it, and he said, ‘I’ll help you do whatever has got to be done, this just needs to be done.'”
So, she did enroll again, and she graduated in May 2022 with a bachelor of science in business administration.
She is currently working on her Master of Business Administration through John Brown University, while also working as the office manager for Trademark Real Estate.
“Every time I do have an accomplishment academically, it is an honor to my mom, and I want to make sure she’s remembered for that,” she said.
Frazier hopes to use her MBA in cybersecurity to some day be a chief information security officer and “make the world a safer place online,” she said.
“It’s my dad and the elderly that have inspired me because they’re the most vulnerable population for scams,” she said.
Although she has chosen to pursue education and cybersecurity, that doesn’t mean she has given up her roots in music either.
“I have always been passionate about education, but always passionate about music as well, and so there was a period of time that it was hard to make the distinction of which is more, you know, which one do I want to pursue more,” she said. “And finally I came to terms with. I can do both.”
Currently, she has three albums out, and she’s still working on more projects with her husband, she said.
