Long after moving away from Chenango County, a Norwich native says her ties to the area remain stronger than ever.

Jenny Newcomer (formerly Kane), now a resident of Dorango, Colo., has faced hardships and joy along the way to success.

After graduating from Norwich High School in 1994, Jenny traveled up the road to Colgate University where she earned a degree in environmental policy. During her summers in college, she traveled to Colorado where she took part in a geology project. “I had family out there, and I just fell in love with Colorado,” she said.

Newcomer states her initial plan upon finishing school at Colgate was to go there and study law. “I spent the summer in a beautiful place but didn’t see it, because I was in a law library all day,” she says. “That’s when I knew law wasn’t for me.” During her first summer in Colorado, Jenny met Will, her future husband.

After deciding law was not the way to go, Newcomer started working for the National Land Conservation Organization, where she says she found something she truly enjoyed. “We would help others buy up land and preserve it, make it into parks or recreational opportunities,” she said. Newcomer worked in Boulder for the conservation organization for five years. During this time, as she prepared to be married and start a family, Newcomer was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 23, and her plans were put on hold.