Ambition is nothing new for Anne Laurie Pierre. A senior at Everett High, she is chronicling this school year with GBH News as part of our COVID and the Classroom series. The daughter of Haitian immigrants her goal is to become the first in her family to go to college and, eventually, medical school. But when it became clear Joe Biden won the presidential race and that Kamala Harris would become Vice President, suddenly, the possibilities seemed endless.
“Imagine being Black, a woman, and have so much power in this country, that’s amazing,” she said. “And it really encourages me to work harder and to push because I could — that could be me one day, that could be my friends one day, that could be my children some day.”
Closing the Gap
Pierre was born in New Jersey, but when she was two years old her parents separated and she moved with her mother to Haiti. Five years later she returned to the U.S. and settled in Everett.
“When I was seven years old, my mom was pregnant with twins. And she felt discomfort and pain in her stomach and she went to the hospital. Unfortunately, she didn’t get any help and she lost both of the babies. I don’t want this to happen to any other women.” said Pierre. “I feel like they would've taken her pain and just her into consideration more if she was white.”
That experience was formative. She wants to become an obstetrician-gynecologist and help close a documented disparity in healthcare: Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
Black physicians are also under-represented in healthcare, making up only 5% of all medical doctors.
“Patients need to be able to have somebody to talk to who look like them. A lot of black people that I know are afraid of policemen and the health care system,” said Pierre. “And I can understand from my mom’s point of view. She’s had an experience where she almost lost her life.”
A Place To Talk
Anne Laurie attends a high school that reflects the city’s diversity. Sixty-percent of the students at Everett High speak a language other than English at home. Like other gateway cities, Everett’s been hard-hit by COVID-19 and this year all high school classes are remote.
That means Pierre has been unable to compete on the volleyball and track teams, but via Zoom, she is still leading a club she founded last year called Empowering Young Black Excellence - EYBE for short.
“I feel like as young Black people, we get discriminated [against],” said Pierre. “We really need this place where we can talk about these struggles, where we can learn about our history and educate others on true Black history.”
Membership shot up to 80 members last summer in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.
“And now we're just like educating the city and work is being done. And I really love that we have a space, especially during this time, like the whole BLM movement, COVID-19 affecting low income people,” she said, “and I'm just glad that this club existed so we can come together and actually talk about it.”
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