Hello there! My name is Stancey Collins and I am the Community Development Coordinator here at the ADP. I live in Hattiesburg, I made a huge purchase in 2019 and bought a house here for myself and my dog Prez because, of course you buy a house to give your dog a yard, right? I’m originally from Columbia, so I’ve pretty much been in or close to Hattiesburg all of my life. I love to travel but I never really had a desire to move away from home after I graduated. My family is here and I truly enjoy being in Hattiesburg because I love how unique our community is. I love spending time with my family and friends and my dog. I love to eat and cook while I pretend as if I have my own cooking show, and I love to create acrylic pour canvases and resin trays and coasters, and other décor items in my spare time.
How did I get into Community Development? Well honestly, I didn’t know what I was getting into when I applied for the Community Development Coordinator position back in 2018. Instead of starting there, let’s start with a little about my educational background. I attended The University of Southern Mississippi (SMTTT!) where I graduated in 2014 with a B.S.B.A in Healthcare Marketing. After taking all of my prerequisite classes as a chemistry major and minor in pre-pharmacy, I realized that pharmacy was not the path for me. After coming to this realization, I wanted to change my major. I knew I wanted to do something in business but didn’t want to lose all of my science classes because I had worked so hard to pass them all. Then, I saw the perfect degree for my situation, Healthcare Marketing. After graduating with my degree, I found a Marketing position and realized that I truly enjoy Marketing but that I wanted to be able to help others more and to plan events. I found an opening for my current role and thought it looked fun and applied. I honestly had never heard of Economic or Community Development before but I thought the idea of helping Greater Hattiesburg would be something that I enjoyed and, I was right.
While in this position, I have learned a great deal of things from what Economic and Community Development are, to how to help small businesses attain funding. I love Community Development because I love the idea of helping to create an environment for others to grow and succeed. I truly enjoy helping plan all of our K-12 Education Initiatives. Jumpstart to Success, Mission: Possible, and Teachers in the Workplace are all great events that you can literally see impacting and helping others. It may be the enneagram 7 in me, which I also learned about in this position, but it really brightens my day to have a positive impact on others. I truly believe that I fell into this position but I’m right where I need to be. Being the most inexperienced person on my team when it comes to Economic Development, I’ve learned so much from my co-workers and truly appreciate them for helping me grow both personally and professionally. I value my team so much because they are all so passionate about what they do and I believe that is why we all work so well together. I look forward to coming to work every day because there’s always something new to do and there’s not too many days that look the same.
Stancey Collins
Community Development Coordinator, Economic Development
Twitter: @Stancey_C
LinkedIn: Connect with Stancey
