Debby Lee ’21 moved to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, at 4 years old. She spent her childhood in Wilmore, Ky., a small town of 5,000 residents, which was roughly 95 percent white. There were very few Asian students in her school, and she struggled to find her place as a Korean-American child.
 
Her experience in Kentucky and at Episcopal inspired Debby to start a podcast, Hyphenated: A High School Story. In the episodes, she interviews her peers on race relations in the United States. The podcast covers topics that have included the global protests following the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement, allyship, and microaggressions. She was encouraged by an advisor to submit her work to The Princeton Prize in Race Relations and was awarded a Certificate of Accomplishment.
 
Debby, who recently gave a Chapel talk at the Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter Vespers, spoke of arriving at Episcopal and trying to find her place on campus, much like she had done in Wilmore. She spoke of the paradox of being an Asian-American student in the States. “If I allowed myself to be enthusiastic, energetic, or overly engaged, I was nerdy,” she said. “But if I wasn’t enthusiastic enough, I was anti-social.”
 
“I was determined to free myself from the limited expectations that restrained my voice back home,” Debby added. “I worked to be louder. I laughed a little harder, I yelled in the dining hall, I over-exaggerated my actions.” By fighting against the stereotype of a quiet Asian student, she fought to “challenge the world’s idea that I wasn’t allowed to take up space as myself.”
 
Of the willingness of her peers to speak up alongside her, Debby said, “It’s been really nice to have that support group. These conversations don’t feel artificial because we’ve been having them already. It’s just providing a platform for other people to hear them.”
 
After graduating from The Holy Hill, Debby will attend American University, where she plans to major in political science and continue her work in race relations.
 
Through her podcast and her moving Chapel talk, Debby left the Episcopal student body with one important piece of advice that honors Episcopal’s motto of “Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter”: “Walk down the road of self-discovery with bravery, faith, and joy. And as you take each step, know that you have one voice — a voice that is worth being heard.”