Impact Showcase | May 11, 5:30–7:00 pm · Bellden Cafe, Bellevue
Nationally, only 6% of public-school teachers are Black, while Black students make up 15% of the student population. In Washington state, the gap is just as stark. Research shows that Black students who have at least one Black teacher by third grade are significantly more likely to graduate and pursue college.
That context is exactly why Pizza with a Purpose was built.
In 2017, a group of high school students at Interlake were asked a simple question — what do you need to feel supported on the path ahead? They didn’t just answer it. They got to work.
Working alongside Eastside Pathways’ Career Pathways collaborative, students from the Black Student Union and the Latinx Student Union designed career interest surveys, recruited their peers, and decided how events should feel. Informal. Over food. During lunch, not after school, so more students could actually show up. They called it Pizza with a Purpose, and from the start, it was theirs.
Now, nearly a decade later, we are relaunching — and this time, the table is bigger.
In partnership with the Bellevue School District, Eastside Pathways has brought together six community-based organizations, each deeply rooted in the students and families they serve: Africans on the Eastside, Eastside Youth Coalition, Vitaes, The Root of Us, Big Brothers Big Sisters Puget Sound, and the Muslim Community Network Association. Together, they are building something more coordinated, more expansive, and more intentional than what came before.
At its heart, Pizza with a Purpose is still what the students designed it to be — a space where Black high school youth can sit across from professionals who share their story, ask real questions, and begin to see a future that feels possible for them. But now it’s backed by a full ecosystem of support: FAFSA completion, post-secondary planning, career investigation workshops, culturally affirming programming, and 1:1 mentorship. And this is being scaled to our Muslim youth as well.
One shared mission: the thrival of our Black and Muslim youth.
Join Us
Want to go deeper into the work? Attend an EP101 to begin your path to becoming an Eastside Pathways partner and click to learn more about our Collaborative Action Networks.
