ALUMNI
Growing Up Biracial in Bellevue
STS Alumna Shares Experience as a Woman of Color On July 7, 2020, St. Thomas School alumna Marissa Pool published a video on Instagram. It is the first of a series of interviews that discuss Pool’s personal experience as a woman of color in Bellevue, Washington. “I was feeling terrible in the days following George Floyd’s death, and it was actually my friends who helped me come up with the idea of making a video to address what I was feeling,” says Pool. “They asked what I would be comfortable doing to put myself out there and be heard as a person of color. And then one of them said, ‘What if we make a video about your life?’ Making a video felt like the most natural way to share my story. I thought a video would be the easiest way for people to pay attention.” Still, talking publicly about her experience was no easy task. “I hate being vulnerable and making everything about me,” Pool confesses. “When I was a junior in high school, I wrote a speech about what it was like to be half-Black, 12
St. Thomas School
half-Chinese, but that was it. I never felt like I had a place to talk publicly about my experiences as a person of color because no one was ready to receive that yet. In high school, people talked about racial discrimination, but it wasn’t making much of a difference. But it’s everywhere now. It’s changing the country. That made me more willing to talk about my race and where I come from.” Pool’s friends—and fellow St. Thomas School alumni— Geneva Myhrvold and Corri McAllister helped her plan and shoot her video for social media. The trio made every effort to be intentional with their process. “We took two weeks to plan it out,” Pool remembers, “and we ended up filming the first episode three times. The first one was kind of a mess,” she laughs. “With any project that I do in life, I think it’s important to feel like I’m doing a good job, even if that means doing it a few times to get it right.”
