Leslie Geraldine Sherman was 20 and a sophomore at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, studying history and international studies with plans to study abroad in Russia. Described as warm, always smiling, a history buff who loved running and helping others, she was in a French class in Norris Hall on the morning of April 16, 2007 when a gunman entered the building and opened fire.

Leslie was one of 32 victims killed in a mass shooting that began earlier that day when the same attacker fatally shot two students in a dormitory. The perpetrator barricaded doors and fired in multiple classrooms in Norris Hall; the assault lasted roughly eleven minutes before law enforcement breached the building and the shooter died by a self-inflicted wound. The campus and the nation were left to mourn the lives lost and the sudden shattering of a promising young student’s future.

If anyone knew Leslie, her classmates, or her plans at Virginia Tech, please share memories or information that might help keep her story alive.