Leslie Morris ’75 had no idea that Sasha Oglesby ’29 had applied to Simmons.
That was exactly how Oglesby wanted it.
The two had traveled to Boston together in 2023, when Morris brought Oglesby and four other young women from Women of the Dream, the Camden, New Jersey-based organization she founded, to Simmons for the Black Alumnae/i Symposium. Oglesby sang the Black National Anthem and spent several days exploring the University and Boston.
She returned home without saying much about the experience. Morris didn't press her.
What Morris didn't know was that Oglesby had already made up her mind.
She applied to Simmons without telling her longtime mentor. Even the instructor who helped Oglesby with the college application process kept the secret. Oglesby, Morris later learned, didn't want to disappoint her if she wasn't accepted.
Then, one day in the spring of her senior year, Oglesby walked into the Women of the Dream room carrying an envelope.
Morris remembers Oglesby telling her, "Ms. Leslie, I have a surprise for you!"
When Morris saw the acceptance letter, she was speechless.
Then came the hug, the tears, and the celebration. Morris remembers the two of them running through the school hallways announcing that Oglesby had gotten into her alma mater.
For Morris, the moment echoed one from more than half a century earlier.
Finding Her Path at Simmons
Morris arrived at Simmons in 1971 as an 18-year-old from Long Branch, New Jersey.
She entered as a nursing major and found herself surrounded by women who broadened her world. Her class included a significant cohort of Black women, many of whom came from backgrounds very different from her own.
"In high school, I had been a big fish in a small pond," Morris recalls. At Simmons, she found herself among "intelligent, goal-oriented, ambitious, and ready-to-set-the-world-on-fire Black women."
"Simmons expanded my vision of who I could become," she says.
During her junior year, having done well in nursing up to that point, Morris realized nursing wasn't the right path when she fainted from the observation deck while watching an operation. Around the same time, a Simmons-trained social worker she met through a nonprofit in Roxbury recognized what she called the "social work" in Morris and encouraged her to consider the profession.
Morris, having already taken courses in sociology, continued along that track, graduated with honors in 1975, and went on to earn graduate degrees in clinical social work and public health.
"I landed where I was supposed to be," she says. “Our plans are now always the higher source’s plan,” says Morris. “I ended up doing exactly what I was destined to do.”
Her career would center on young people, particularly girls growing up in underserved communities. And something Morris experienced at Simmons stayed with her: sometimes seeing a world beyond the one you know can change the direction of your life.
Seeing What Was Already There
In 2012, Morris founded Women of the Dream in Camden to support girls through life-skills education, college preparation, mentoring, trauma-informed programming, and exposure to new people and experiences.
"I believe we cannot expect young people to make good choices if they don't know what choices they have," Morris says.
Morris first met Oglesby when she was in eighth grade. Oglesby had joined Women of the Dream at the encouragement of her best friend, Anaya. Morris remembers a quiet, reserved girl. As she got to know her, she discovered an exceptionally bright student with a gift for science and mathematics — and a remarkable singer.
Over the years, Morris became a mentor, counselor, and advisor. She also found ways for Oglesby to step forward. Oglesby emceed a scholarship program, read her poetry at conferences, served as a spokesperson at events, and performed throughout Camden.
For Oglesby, the relationship went deeper.
Morris helped her become "more self-assured," Oglesby says, and taught her to acknowledge her own accomplishments instead of brushing them aside.
"She taught me to be me," Oglesby says.
A Trip to Simmons
By 2023, Morris saw pieces of her younger self in Oglesby. She brought her to Simmons hoping the experience might do for Oglesby some of what Simmons had done for her. Morris also didn't want the girls she brought to campus simply to observe.
"You're not just a spectator," she says. "You are a participant."
For Oglesby, that meant standing before the Black Alumnae/i Symposium and singing the Black National Anthem a cappella.
Morris had known for years what happened when Oglesby stepped onto a stage.
"That is her comfort zone," she says. "When Sasha steps on stage, any insecurities she might have, any challenges, you can just see it leaving her body."
As Oglesby began to sing, Morris remembers people rising from their seats. Some were crying. Oglesby remembers something else about that first trip.
"Stepping onto the campus, it just looked so beautiful," she recalls. "I was just looking around, and I could definitely see myself out here."
She just didn't tell Morris.
Bringing Camden to Boston
Today, Oglesby is 19 and a sophomore at Simmons, pursuing her love of science while continuing to make music.
She has performed for Simmons' Black Student Organization and joined the Colleges of the Fenway jazz band. She is also figuring out college on her own, from building relationships with professors to learning how to balance a demanding course load.
"The teachers make it clear that they want to know our names," she says. "I just love the classes and the space here."
And while Boston is a long way from Camden, Oglesby carries her hometown with her.
"I feel like everybody comes here and brings a piece of home," she says.
For Oglesby, that piece is Camden. She speaks proudly of her city and hopes one day to return and give back to the community that raised her.
Coming Full Circle
In June 2025, Morris returned to Simmons for her 50th Reunion, where she received the Alumnae/i Association Executive Board's Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her career and service.
Just a few months later, she was back on campus for a very different milestone: helping Oglesby move into Simmons.
The day brought Morris back to September 1971, when her own mother had brought her to Boston to begin her first year. Before leaving, her mother offered plenty of advice: work hard, stay focused, and make the most of the opportunity she had been given.
More than five decades later, Morris found herself doing much the same thing with Oglesby.
"Work hard. Make good choices. Know who you are. Take advantage of the opportunities in front of you," she says.
Morris calls it "passing the proverbial baton."
"My mother passed that baton to me in 1971," she says. "Fifty-four years later, as I helped Sasha move into that same dorm, I realized that I was passing it forward."
The timing means even more to Morris now. She recently retired from Women of the Dream, although "retirement" isn't quite the word she uses.
"I think of it as renewing," she says.
She plans to write, travel, serve on boards, and continue mentoring. She is retiring from her position, she says, but not from her purpose.
Morris had long said that she wouldn't retire until at least one of the girls she mentored attended Simmons.
"Mission accomplished," she says.
Passing It Forward
For Morris, legacy isn't about an organization, an award, or even a name. It is about people.
She wants her legacy to be measured by the people she has helped lift — and, she says, "hopefully, the people they go on to lift themselves."
"Where you start out in life does not have to be your destiny," Morris says.
The quiet eighth grader Morris first met is now a Simmons student, finding her own way at the university that helped set Morris on hers more than 50 years ago.
And Oglesby knows what Leslie gave her. For Morris, the hope is that one day Oglesby will do the same for someone else.
The baton is Oglesby's now.