Promoting a place you love: Meet Miss Hospitality Natchez, Anna Simmons – Mississippi’s Best Community Newspaper

Selling a spot you’re keen on: Meet Miss Hospitality Natchez, Anna Simmons

Revealed 7:00 am Sunday, August 21, 2022

NATCHEZ — Anna Simmons, the daughter of Rachel and Sean Simmons, was by no means the pageant-going sort earlier than final spring when she interviewed with half a dozen different women to find who would grow to be the following Miss Hospitality Natchez.

Simmons, who graduated from Cathedral Excessive Faculty in Could, mentioned the pageant board spoke to senior women at her college to see who could be .

The preliminary interview for Miss Hospitality Natchez was three hours lengthy and the winner was determined the identical night time, Simmons mentioned.

When the winner was introduced, Simmons mentioned she was “excited however nervous” on the information.  She knew she must get to work immediately to organize for the state pageant.

“It was unusual as a result of I’d by no means executed a pageant earlier than,” Simmons mentioned. “I used to be getting in not realizing what to anticipate so I handled it like a job interview. It was sort of enjoyable. The women who interviewed me have been nice and made it as least annoying as attainable. I believe it gave me loads of expertise to organize me for future job interviews.”

The pageant is for younger girls between the of ages 18 and 24.

Simmons was one of many youngest to take part within the state pageant in Hattiesburg final month, which consisted of per week of apply and preparation earlier than the precise competitions, she mentioned.

“To be so younger and be able to advertise the oldest metropolis on the Mississippi River to me is a giant deal,” she mentioned. “I used to be actually nervous … however this was one thing I used to be glad I obtained to expertise. Each woman there was unimaginable. It was a gathering of the brightest and finest in Mississippi and I didn’t meet a single individual that was not a smiling face and able to assist. It was a life-changing expertise for me. I obtained to satisfy folks from locations all around the state that I didn’t even know existed and met lots of people I really feel like I can be buddies with for the remainder of my life.”

Simmons now attends the College of Mississippi, the place she is majoring in forensic chemistry and plans to attend medical college to grow to be a forensic pathologist.

Her inspiration comes from her grandfather, Dr. John Lewis, who labored on the Mississippi Forensic Laboratory in Pearl.

Whereas many in the identical area may take higher-paying jobs in different states, Simmons—like her grandfather—needs to make use of her training to assist her house state in an space that’s a lot wanted, she mentioned.

Simmons mentioned she determined to compete for Miss Hospitality as a result of, whereas she has lived in loads of different locations, Natchez has at all times felt like house.

“I left this summer time for Europe for 2 weeks and it simply doesn’t examine,” she mentioned. “As somebody who has traveled and has lived in a bunch of various locations with a bunch of various kinds of folks, there is no such thing as a place like Natchez. It’s such a melting pot of cultures, religions and those that I don’t assume folks get as a lot of wherever else.”

As Natchez Miss Hospitality, Simmons is launching a social media platform known as “Miss Hospitality Natchez” that she hopes the following younger girl to have the title will inherit and preserve it going.

“To me, hospitality is the promotion of a spot you’re keen on,” she mentioned. “It’s the capacity to attract others to someplace with out being overwhelming and to specific how you’re feeling about a spot in a approach that’s fascinating. My purpose is to advertise financial improvement in Natchez and the state as an entire to the remainder of the nation.”

Simmons has been a member of Cathedral Excessive Faculty’s dance workforce, was a peer ministry chief of St. Mary Basilica’s Catholic Youth Group, a member of the Cathedral Excessive Faculty varsity observe workforce and danced on the Middleton Faculty of Dance. Her different hobbies embody mountain climbing, paddle boarding, touring and any outside exercise in addition to journaling about her life experiences.

Simmons will seem, with crown and sash, at a number of upcoming Natchez occasions together with upcoming music festivals this fall.