For the Love of Fisk: Dr. Roneisha Simpson

By Jada Thompson
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
Fisk University

Dr. Roneisha Simpson created an excel spreadsheet with lists of colleges she hoped to attend. Fisk University was at the top of that list; a school far away from her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri – a place unfamiliar to family members who had never stepped foot on a college campus.

She would be the first.

It was For the Love of Fisk that she dared to venture onto the campus listed first on that spreadsheet.

“It was hard being a first-generation college student because you felt like you had to break the mold. You had to be that one to pave the way for the rest of your family.”

With the help of friends and Fisk faculty she met at college fairs guiding her through applications, this college dream became a living reality – a purpose Dr. Simpson still walks in today.

Dr. Simpson serves as a forensic psychologist at Youth Opportunity Investments, a career she fostered, shaped, and built on the sacred grounds of Fisk University.

As a first-generation college student, uncertainty was the precursor for every move she made; but it was her village, a group comprised of friends turned family, classmates, and Fisk staff, that made that path straight.

She got her first dose of Fisk in the summer before her freshman year. A walk-on for the volleyball team, she bonded with her teammates, other student athletes, and members of student organizations, allowing her to ease into college life before classes began.

At the start of the semester, she decorated the first bedroom she’d ever had outside of her hometown. What began as a pink-zebra printed dreamscape became the backdrop to her becoming – the place where a first-generation student learned that she belonged.

The road was anything but easy. Finding her footing in this new environment brought its challenges, financially, socially, and academically. The pressures of being the first in her family – the idea of doing what had never been done – weighed on her.

But it was the transformative power of Fisk that instilled in her the belief that there was no obstacle she couldn’t overcome.

Each challenge reshaped her, building her confidence to take on the next steps in her path.

Dr. Simpson credits members of the psychology department – Dr. Sheila Peters, Dr. Stephanie Bellard Chase, and Dr. Leslie Collins, to name a few – for giving her the push she needed to decide her career path. Those same professors who guided her through late nights and big decisions, still walk beside her today – a living testament of the Fisk family.

“When they say, ‘Fisk for life,’ they mean ‘Fisk for life.’ I can call them up right now needing prayer or a favor, and they will do that. They will be there.”

In 2018, the future Dr. Simpson walked across the stage, diploma in hand. Beaming with pride, she had done it – the first in her family, the dream on her spreadsheet fulfilled.

Now, the same love Fisk faculty poured into Dr. Simpson, she continues to pour into future generations in her work as a forensic psychologist.

“Being a first-generation college student means that you pave the way and make it easier for others to come behind you and your family. You can lay out the blueprint for them; it won’t come easy, but they will be able to work for it.”

Sustained by a community that believed she could, the leap of faith in choosing Fisk University has guided Dr. Simpson to heights that were once unimaginable, and she is just getting started.