Women of the Dream
Two Journeys, One Dream
Sasha Oglesby
Class of 2029
Simmons University, Boston, MA
It’s impossible to know where life will take you. Just a few years ago, I was a 14-year-old 8th grader excited to join the Women of the Dream Life Skills Program, with no real understanding of what it meant to be confident or to dream. Today, I am an 18-year-old young woman from Camden, NJ, on the campus of Simmons University in Boston, beginning my journey as a freshman biology major. I did the research. I believe I am the only person from Camden to ever attend Simmons. My acceptance to Simmons was proof that I can overcome adversity, dream, and achieve my dreams.
I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to join the Class of 2029. From the very start, when I visited Simmons University with Women of the Dream’s Ms. Leslie in 2023, Simmons felt like the perfect fit. The resources and the welcoming community showed me that I belong here. Conversations, campus visits, and learning about organizations that support Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ students confirmed that this is a place where I can thrive.
I am excited about this institution. I want to represent its proud history of women facing challenges and overcoming them, and to stand for the tribulations we continue to face today. Education is the most important gift, and all women deserve it.
Growing up in Camden, NJ, a city considered poor, was not a terrible experience. While it may not be affluent in wealth, it is rich in arts, culture, and community. Programs like Women of the Dream uplift young people in the city, and Leslie Morris—my guide and mentor since middle school—was a major part of my journey to Simmons. She introduced me to Simmons, opened my eyes to possibilities, and helped me become more confident in myself and my future.
Now, I take pride in sharing my voice—whether through writing or through music—because it allows me to express my truth. I look forward to sharing that voice with Simmons and the city of Boston.
I want to be an example for my peers and for my family at home, proving that we are capable human beings—worthy of love, education, and success. By pursuing a major in Biology with a minor in Law and Justice, I am taking my first steps toward becoming a medical examiner. In a world where accuracy is essential, I want to contribute to truth and justice. Simmons, with its close-knit community and abundant resources, is the perfect place to begin.
Simmons, I’m here—and I’m ready for this next step in my journey!
Sasha Oglesby
Sasha and her roommate, Eden, already besties through the power of social media and group chats!
Sasha and Eden did a great job arranging their belongings in the space they will share.
Thank you, Professor Bailey, for dropping by! Professor Bailey actually met Sasha when she visited Simmons in 2023.
Sasha and her father, Carl, share a tearful goodbye as he prepares to head back to New Jersey. Such a precious moment.
Sasha, her parents, Carl and Janine Oglesby, and her baby sister and brother, Savannah and Sahil, proudly pose in front of Sasha’s dorm, Simmons Hall, the very dorm where Leslie was assigned during her freshman year.
In the end, these two roomies were happy campers! What a great day for them, for Sasha, her parents, Ms. Leslie, and for society in general.
Leslie Morris
Class of 1975
Simmons College, Boston, MA
It’s impossible to know where life will take you. Fifty-four years ago, I was a 17-year-old senior at Long Branch High School in Long Branch, NJ, with the dream of attending college. I grew up in public housing, in a family without the means to send me, but held fast to the belief—echoing Martin Luther King’s dream—that my generation of Black children would gain access to opportunities denied them because of the color of their skin.
During those years of civil rights change, doors began to open for students like me – lacking in financial resources but bright, motivated, and hopeful about the future. Just as I have guided Sasha, my high school guidance counselor, Theodora Apostolocus guided me. She shared my transcript with Brenda Franklin, a Simmons College recruiter, a Black woman whose encouragement and promise of financial aid made college possible for me.
In April 1971, I boarded a Greyhound bus to Boston for a campus visit, and my life changed forever. I was blown away by the power of the presence of young Black women who looked like me. The numbers were small compared to the population of white women, but those who were there were intelligent, motivated, politically astute, and active, and they were career-driven and ready to make a lasting impact on the world. I knew Simmons was where I belonged. I returned to my community, committed to attending Simmons, and with a renewed sense of hope for the future.
Sasha’s story mirrors mine. When she received her Simmons acceptance, she cried, just as I had decades earlier. She waved her letter through the halls of her high school, while I had once run through my housing project with mine, both of us overcome with joy at the chance to attend a “prestigious women’s college in Boston.” And just as Ms. Franklin opened the doors of Simmons to me with that first campus visit during my senior year of high school, I opened those doors for Sasha when I brought her to Boston to attend the Black Symposium at Simmons in 2023.
This is the power of exposure and opportunity. Without that pivotal trip, neither of us might have envisioned ourselves at Simmons. Today, as Sasha begins her journey, I feel I have come full circle—just as my family and community believed in me, I now believe in her, and in the endless opportunities education can bring to break cycles of poverty and open paths to success.
In June 2025, at my 50th class reunion, I stood once more on the Simmons campus to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. In my acceptance speech, I reflected on this journey—how a young Black girl from public housing found her way to Simmons, and how Sasha now carries that same dream forward. To witness her acceptance is not only to see my past reflected, but to see the future unfolding with promise.
On August 26, 2025, I traveled to Boston to assist Sasha and her family on move-in day—not only to help her get settled, but also to pass the proverbial baton to her, just as it had once been passed to me. As I watched Sasha and her roommate, Eden, already bonded through social media and group chats in a way my generation could not have imagined, carefully arrange their new space, I was transported back fifty-four years. I remembered my own move-in day and my mother’s deep sense of pride and accomplishment as she helped me set up my dorm room.
As I shared those memories with Sasha’s parents, we realized we were all experiencing that same blend of pride, joy, and yes, bittersweet emotion. It was a powerful reminder that while the times and tools have changed, the legacy of love, sacrifice, and accomplishment continues across generations.
Leslie Morris
Sasha, Eden, and Leslie share hugs and smiles on the campus quad. Sasha is ALL smiles!
Good ole Bartol Hall! Sasha, her little sister, Savannah, and Leslie enjoyed a great meal in Bartol Hall.
