Sherron

For ordinary students, the workload of school can leave little time for their social lives and none to consider extra curricular activities.

Sherron Simpson, a 20-year-old junior at Virginia Commonwealth University, is not ordinary student. Juggling several extra curricular activities with a strenuous academic load is in the
norm for her.

She played saxophone on her high school’s concert and pep bands as well as the drum major for their marching band. Simpson was also involved in ballet and volleyball from her eighth-grade year until she graduated high school.

She carried on all these activities while enrolled in Governor’s School. This, along with maintaining a high GPA, allowed her to enter college as a sophomore.

“I’m most proud of finishing third in my class,” Simpson said. “I like school, I like the leadership aspect.”

Simpson is more of a leader than she admits. Her little sister Rasheba, 16, is also a member of the band, takes ballet, and is in Governor’s School.

“She’s her own person,” Sherron said.

Her boyfriend of six years, Rodney Minor, disagrees. “Rasheba does look up to her,” he said.

As for what influences Simpson, Minor credits her mother Eva Minor. “Her mom is the biggest influence on her life,” he said. “Though they’ve had their struggles, she’s always been there to push her not to make mistakes. She’s an inspiration.”

She credits both her parents for her success. Seeing her father, Ronald Simpson, recover from his own struggles gave her peace of mind. “I used to be an angry person, angry at life,” she said.

Her mother teaching the fifth grade has not only been an asset to her as a student but has also led her into substitute teaching during semester breaks.

She also mentors kids in two summer programs. For the past two summers, she has been a councilor to children age four to six for her church summer camp. “It’s interesting, they keep me laughing,” she said. “Though it’s let me know, I don’t want to be a teacher.”

This past summer she was a councilor for the Urban Journalism Workshop hold by VCU.

Now that school is in session, she has joined VCU’s Black Awakening Choir and hopes to get an internship with Richmond’s ABC affiliate, WRIC, so she can pursue her goal of becoming a producer.

“She doesn’t have the free time she might want but she doesn’t complain,” Minor said. “I don’t know how she does it.”