Last month, IMS Engineers brought on board one of Greenville’s own — 23-year-old Jackson State alumna Jeron Collins.
IMS Engineers, a minority-owned engineering firm based in Jackson, was appointed in January to provide services in addressing Washington County’s infrastructure needs.
Collins said he was contacted by IMS in early February and a few weeks later, a formal interview followed.
“(IMS) explained that my job is going to gravitate toward everything they have to offer in terms of the engineering field,” he said. “I’ll be able to go through some things with them and learn from them.”
Collins said he is looking forward to getting familiarized with the different projects, and acquiring all of the experience and information he can.
A member of the 2015 graduating class of Greenville Weston High School, Collins shared he did not know right off of the bat he would want to pursue civil engineering.
“When I first got to Jackson State University, of course they had computer engineering and mechanical engineering and those weren’t necessarily my key points — I wasn’t really interested in that,” he said.
Collins actually found himself drawn to aerospace engineering; however, he kept exploring.
“When I learned about civil, and the ability to pave roads, dams, bridges and things of that nature and the fact that I could be a help to the community and the safety of the people, I realized civil engineering was the right place for me to be,” he said.
Collins graduated from JSU in 2019 with a degree in civil engineering.
He said the curriculum was challenging, but well worth it noting, “Everything I went through in college and everything I learned over the years in college, IMS was able to incorporate it so it wouldn’t just be one specific thing I was working on, but a pretty broad scope of the engineering field,” he said.
Collins’ ties to the Greenville community run deep.
His mother, Janet Collins, is the human resources director for the Greenville Public School District (GPSD) and his father, Curt Collins, is a City of Greenville retiree.
Collins’ younger brother, Jevon Collins, is currently attending Alcorn State University and majoring in biology with a concentration in physical therapy.
When asked how being able to come home and contribute professionally to his community resonates with him, Collins said, “It’s definitely something I take pride in, being from here in Washington County. So, when I went to Jackson, my whole thing was that if I could come back to my city and invest my time that I’ve spent at Jackson State into the city and make it a better place, that’ll be my number one priority,” he said. “IMS has given me the opportunity to do that with everything they’ve given me so far.”
