Beatrix Lozach: Hi, this is Talking on Sunshine and I’m your host Beatrix Lozach, and this is my co-host:

Riley Pita: Riley Pita.

Beatrix Lozach: And today we will be interviewing senior Noble Pierce. Noble, would you like to introduce yourself? 

Noble Pierce: I’m Noble Pierce. I’m the president of the Students of Color Alliance. I’m in speech and debate, and I’m sort of the captain there because I’m a senior. I’m a visual arts ambassador. So I go to, like, middle schools, and I recruit, like, people who are coming into the school.

I am one of the co-captains of the wrestling team. I’m a returning PAL and formerly I was in the Student Equity Council, which is a thing done at AISD where I was able to go down there and like preach for equity and make sure schools are understanding, like issues about race and just making sure everybody is treated equally.

Riley Pita: And what initially drew you to all these? 

Noble Pierce: People. I love, like, spending time with people and doing things and it’s cheesy, but I love to give back to the community. And at McCallum, being able to find what that community is, I was able to find all these different opportunities to give back to the community. It’s all these different things of finding little aspects that I love in people, and then being a person and then being able to magnify that through clubs.

Beatrix Lozach: Do you have any particular traditions related to giving back to the community? 

Noble Pierce: Freshman year I used to buy bags of butterscotch candy, and I would go out of my way to ask anybody in the hallway and my class, they’re sitting next to me, even teachers. And I go, do you want a butterscotch? And I’d make sure they had butterscotch candy. I went out of my way to go, oh, I’m out of butterscotch right now. I need to go to the store and buy more. That’s where starting to give to The McCallum community started for me was giving out butterscotch candy 

Riley Pita: This passion to give to the community, is that part of what inspired you to join PALS? 

Noble Pierce: Partly, I work with kids currently, and so the aspect of working with kids and pals is very, like, soothing because I work over the summer, so I’d work over the summer and I’d come back to school and being able to be in PALS, I’m able to interact with kids and so yeah. Giving back to the community. But PALS became such more of a family and I feel like in all these extracurriculars I was looking for a community but in doing them, I found a community to give to. 

Beatrix Lozach: What would you say is your favorite aspect of being part of pals?

Noble Pierce: I mean, you learn to like, love everybody in that room. There was never a time where I would walk in that room that I didn’t have this ache in my heart and look around and just know that, like, I love all these people and like what the application process, you know, they want to be in the classroom, and you learn to love people and people who are so different from you in horror, so similar from you in so many different ways.And it’s just like a room of love. 

Riley Pita: What was your experience putting on Pink Week? 

Noble Pierce: In general, Pink Week was just awesome. The pink salon is one of the things we do, and I like having a little role play and being like, how’s your day girl? How are you doing?  While we’re, like, painting their nails and doing their hair.  I was making schedules, talking to teachers, getting consent for getting pied and stuff like that. 

Beatrix Lozach: That must have been such an interesting experience trying to like, get consent from teachers to get paid. What was that like and how do you think you’ve applied strategies from speech and debate to rhetoric and persuasion?

Noble Pierce: As somebody who talks a lot, it gives me more confidence to talk a lot in large groups as well, but also with, like, authority figures, with all the activities that I do and things I do in class, I’ve learned like to bond with more of the staff. And then Noble is just asking them like, hey, do you want to get paid for being quick, yes or no? And it’s just like a casual conversation. 

Beatrix Lozach: How do you think you’ve been able to build networks in this community? You referenced earlier It feeling kind of like you were the Godfather. 

Noble Pierce: Yes. When I was in freshman year, I told my mother that I am going to be the Godfather of McCallum. So in giving candy and and I think giving mostly into teachers, into students, that’s how I’ve been able to network. I think what people don’t realize is that teachers are people and not just teachers. Same with staff. And so when you talk to them like a person or a friend, it becomes so much easier to open up to them and they become more comfortable with you as well. 

Riley Pita: So, how do you apply this, like, mindset basically to wrestling, even when you’re competing? 

Noble Pierce: What I love about wrestling, and again, I love everything that I do, in wrestling, what I love most about wrestling is the sport is very individual, but it builds you a community.

And so in being able to take all these aspects of understanding people and understanding myself and being kind to others, it transfers to wrestling because of how individual it is. You need to find a way for support.  And so you need to build that community around you. Who’s able to help you develop as your own wrestler and also in the sport in general. We’re all really kind with each other for how aggressive that the sport is. I mean, fighting somebody else is such an intimate thing. So there needs to be a level of kindness and respect among people. So like, I can beat somebody in a match and they will later we’ll be talking in the stands and we’re making jokes. 

Riley Pita: I know that in PALS you’ve talked like you guys have talked about not taking stuff personally, would you say that applies to wrestling as well?

Noble Pierce: The best wrestlers know not to take anything that happens on the mat personally. 

Beatrix Lozach: How has being a leader in this plethora of clubs, how has that taught you how to handle stressful situations?

Noble Pierce: It’s definitely hard as a teenager to balance being stressed and having all these things and taking care of other people and taking care of yourself. Like, when stress happens, I talk to my mom because she’s my best friend, being able to talk through that and then just push through it and remind myself of all the people who are depending on me and being like, I need to be able to give to them. So I will let myself later have a moment to let that stress out. But in the moment, if it’s like a stressful situation, I’m able to go, they need me and I need to be there for them because they’re giving me their all and I need to give that in return.

Beatrix Lozach: As a leader, is it ever challenging to assert your own boundaries, right, when you need some rest or when you need some time to think about things?

Noble Pierce: 100%, all of the time. When you join clubs, and you become leadership, this is our intro to leadership. So, when I say we I’m including myself, of course, and it’s that we want to be a good leader and we don’t know exactly what that looks like independently for us. So we are crossing boundaries and I struggle with boundaries. And so I think it’s definitely been a hard balance, but being able to rely on others to like, use their voice and I encourage others to tell me when they’re uncomfortable. So if I’m overstimulated, I’m going to be like, I love you so much. I need you to step away from me right now. Or if they’re trying to, like if I need to take care of something else and they’re asking me a bunch of questions, I’m like, we’ll put a pin in this. I will make sure that we come back later.But I need to be doing this other thing right now. And so being able to communicate these are my priorities in this. We’re going to get this done, but we can’t get this done right now, I emphasize that. And so what I really appreciate is when people give it back I that’s what I try to like a give and take sort of thing.

Riley Pita: So,  what connects all these activities for you? 

Noble Pierce: Love. Love for people. Love for the things I do. I love so deeply, so having these spaces where I’m able to love all these different aspects of people where they also feel like they’re at their best is so rewarding.

Beatrix Lozach: All right, and on that lovely note, this has been Talking on Sunshine. I’m your host, Beatrix Lozach, and

Riley Pita: Riley Pita.

Beatrix Lozach: Go Knights!