Collins Takes the Vol Spirit to the Second Mile
Alumna Hannah Collins built her successful business on language and communications skills honed in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Hannah Collins shaped her path as an entrepreneur on the strong communications skills and cultural understanding she developed as a Spanish major at UT. Early goals of possibly working at the United Nations grew into a business partnership that has taken Collins to an international stage while staying deeply engaged with the university.
“I was really passionate about the Spanish language and culture and knew I wanted it infused into my life,” said Collins. “As a result, I worked abroad two summers in a row as a translator, one summer in Nicaragua and then one summer in the Dominican Republic.”
These experiences living abroad kicked off a passion for travel that stayed with Collins as her professional goals shifted into the world of digital communications and marketing—with her Spanish degree still at the core of her journey.
“The ability to communicate with diverse audiences, whether in English or in Spanish, has so deeply enriched my life, personally and professionally,” said Collins. “It’s amazing to be able to travel to parts of the world that other people might feel intimidated by because of the language barrier.”
Collins likes to say that being a Spanish major is just like being an English major, but with more accent marks.
“So much of the focus is on communication and understanding different cultures and being able to bridge cultural divides,” she said. “So, I essentially was a communications major. It was just communicating in a different language.”
Going the Second Mile
The through-line of communications skills via her language studies led Collins to a career with digital marketing agencies. She eventually co-founded the company Second Mile with Jess Vossler, a lacrosse teammate from Jacksonville University, Florida, where Collins briefly attended before coming to Rocky Top. Second Mile has twice earned recognition in UT’s Rocky Top Business Awards.
“We started off doing a lot of blog writing, social media content, and heavy content creation before we pivoted in the past couple of years to being more of a revenue operations tech consultant and tech implementation company,” said Collins. “We also have the custom web development side of our team—custom integrations, custom websites.”
The name Second Mile was inspired by an approach to service taught by their earliest client, Chick-fil-A. Collins’s parents both operated locations of the popular restaurant chain.
“I have a lot of experience in the Chick-fil-A space, which is part of what made us see the opportunity to start Second Mile,” said Collins. “All of those touch points that make Chick-fil-A special are called second-mile service—when they’re walking you to your car with an umbrella or they’re saying, ‘My pleasure.’”
It’s an approach that blends well with the Volunteer spirit.
“Going the second mile means living generously,” said Collins. “Be generous with your time, with your assumptions, with the way that you help others. The name has served us well.”
Rocky Top Connections
Another of Second Mile’s clients is the University of Tennessee itself.
“We did the admissions website for UT, among quite a few others,” said Collins. “We’ve really enjoyed being a part of the digital transformation process.”
She also maintains UT connections through the Anderson Entrepreneur Center. Collins has served as a judge for their Vol Court entrepreneur competition and has spoken to entrepreneur classes. It’s a way for her to give back, in the Second Mile way, to her Volunteer family.
“I met my very best friends at UT,” said Collins. “And I had really great professors.”
She particularly recalls a business writing course taught by Teaching Professor Sally Harris in the English department.
“It was one of the best college courses I ever took,” said Collins. “I still use that to this day. Also, Laura Trujillo-Mejía in the Spanish department was so smart and sharp and inspirational. I so appreciate that—just the variety of experiences that you get to have earning a College of Arts and Sciences degree.”
By Randall Brown