Life can have many challenges. Don’t let those challenges define you, and never stop learning. That was the message from Colleen Desselle at the West Calcasieu Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Empowering Women Luncheon held Thursday, August 18 at the West Cal Event Center. This year’s theme was “Tattered to Mending,” a reminder that everyone has a story filled with plot twists, good and bad.

Desselle, a WCCC Board Member, CSE Federal Credit Union Director of Marketing and Business Development and the winner of the WCCC 2021 Award of Excellence, began life as a child often accused of and punished for not listening. Turns out, she had a hearing and speech disability.

The Empowering Women event featured slides of some of the attendees as “little girls,” a reminder of a time that was carefree and a chance to talk about childhood expectations and aspirations.

“This little girl was in the corner a lot,” Desselle said, when the screen showed her photo as a little girl.

After she had her allergies treated, tonsils removed, tubes put in her ears, school life held promise. Then homelife became rocky after the Savings and Loan crisis. Family fell apart. The home went to the sheriff’s sale, the business was lost and finally, bankruptcy, she said.

Her parents divorced and her mother raised the four children with assistance from Desselle’s grandparents. In junior high school, she began to join in. She appeared in dance recitals, sang in the choir, and she took on leadership roles.

The hearing and speaking disability that kept her back as a child made it possible to receive a disability grant to attend McNeese State University.

“Everything happens for a reason,” she said. “You may not realize it today, but one day you will.”

She worked her way through college at K-mart, eventually supervising a team of 25. But perhaps the thing that set Desselle apart was that she was willing to work where she was asked, even if that meant learning new skills.

After she finished her college degree in early childhood education, she realized she wasn’t cut out for teaching, and hated lesson plans and especially rewriting them. Life was her teacher, and she kept learning.

“You can learn something from just about everyone you meet,” she said. “Spend time with those who expand your thinking.”

Employed in 1990 Calcasieu Marine Bank, she learned human resources as the receptionist, then promotions came quickly, retail operations and lending secretary, banking specialist with time in training and executive administration duties.

“Knowledge can be power,” she said.

In 1993, she was hired as a part-time teller with CSE Federal Credit Union. Within a year, she was a full-time member service representative. She moved to loan processing, assisted with new platform implementation, moved up to consumer lending, mortgage lender and then marketing representative. She trained through the credit union industry for three years and took a one-year course for business development. In 2015, she became a credit union financial counselor.

“Don’t wait for others to invest in you,” Desselle said. “Invest in yourself.”

Desselle is a certified marketing executive, credit union business development professional, certified credit union financial counselor, part of the Credit Union Marketing Development Council and a volunteer with several organizations.

“No matter what people think of you, always keep singing your own song,” she said.

Her most recent accomplishment? Participating in her first-ever watermelon seed spitting contest at the Beauregard Parish Watermelon Festival.

“It was a learning experience,” she said.