Seeds of Curiosity: A Conversation with LR Jessie Tagliani
July 12, 2023: This past winter, TT Dorm welcomed Leadership Resident (LR) Jessie Tagliani, a recent graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. As Jessie comes to the end of her time in the dorms, we asked her to reflect on the lessons she’ll take from her stay at Harpswell.
At the heart of Harpswell’s Cambodian Women’s Leadership Program is a sisterhood of young Khmer women united across generations, hometowns and majors. Leadership Residents play a special role in nurturing these bonds of sisterhood as active parts of the community. Leadership Resident Jessie Tagliani is no exception.
A Close Community
From the very start of her time at Harpswell, it was clear to Jessie that the structure of the Cambodian Women’s Leadership Program naturally builds community within the dorms. For Jessie, the goal at the heart of Harpswell’s work - equipping future women leaders with the skills needed to make positive change - lays a foundation for long-lasting friendships. One way this is made possible is through Harpswell’s Core Curriculum courses, from Civic Engagement and Debate to weekly critical thinking classes.
What I saw at Harpswell is a common pursuit. Students go through common classes, all of which are woven together by shared values like sisterhood, leadership and family. These [values] and shared terms shape the nature of the community and really emphasize the closeness that Harpswell seeks to foster.
Another way Jessie saw relationships forged at Harpswell was the use of common terminology - a shared language. For example the title “LR” for Leadership Residents or “CDD” for critical thinking classes is a language unique to the Harpswell community. Other words that communicate age and respect – known as honorifics – are naturally drawn from Khmer and so for the students, to a degree, instinctively assign responsibilities within the dorm.
One way I see this sense of closeness and community is in the use of Cambodian terms of honor. In Khmer culture, peers who are older than me are referred to as “bong” and those younger are “oun.” [I think] these terms make it easier for the girls to take on leadership [in the community] too. There was a great moment when a couple of second years helped the first year students. The second years had just been taught how to do the traditional blessing dance by their older sisters last year, but the older sisters were busy. So the second years stepped up and were suddenly in this teacher position as “bong” where their “oun” were looking up to them. There was this wonderful transfer of leadership as they transitioned into a position of responsibility.
As Jessie concluded her thoughts on a common pursuit, she connected this shared vision of community and sisterhood in the dorms to Harpswell’s overall mission of empowering future young women leaders. At the dorms, Jessie realized that “just by bringing value and setting an example you can have ripple effects on a community: you are where the change starts.”
Peer-to-Peer Mentorship
Many of Jessie’s favorite moments as an LR centered on fostering connection through curiosity as a friend and peer to the students in the dorm rather than just a teacher. Through these collaborative moments, Jessie was able to learn about and discuss Khmer culture with students.
My favorite moments were collaborative; bonding after making banana cake or a recipe I showed them, and then in turn, making a recipe they showed me. I currently have a passion project where I’m trying to read a lot of the literature from the Cambodian high school curriculum and I go to the girls and have long conversations about Buddhist values and what karma is, or what a woman’s place in society is seen as.
Beyond an LR’s role of friendship and mentoring students, Jessie also appreciated the role of the Harpswell Cambodia staff in facilitating her own growth. In particular Program and TT Dorm Officer Vong Veasna ‘18 provided Jessie a chance to be a mentee as they worked together on TT’s French Club:
As a mentee, because Veasna has years of teaching experience, I was able to see her teaching style and her demeanor of being very gentle and encouraging. That was honestly a great learning experience for me!
This chance to be inspired as much as providing inspiration is also ultimately what Jessie decided to shape her LR experience around:
What I finally evolved into [as an LR] is that I want this experience to be an exchange - I want to inspire Harpswell students and staff but also for them to inspire me.
Curiosity Forward
Jessie’s reflections on collaboration and interactions with students led to a new outlook on the value of curiosity. Most importantly, she hopes her own curiosity made TT students similarly eager to learn about their world and surroundings.
I’ve learned the importance of exploring both the world and your own self. Being curious is a state of being where you have to be very open about the world and where you have to see the world as a collection of things to discover.
I recall how one student exclaimed, “Wow, I love how curious you are about everything!” I hope I imparted some of that [curiosity] to the girls…and hopefully seeing someone so excited about ordinary subjects showed them it’s good to be curious, too!
For me, learning about a very different culture has made me more open-minded. I don’t know yet whether I was successful in sharing my curiosity with everyone, but hopefully I was successful in planting seeds for the students where curiosity can be both academic and playful.
Through common values, peer-to-peer mentorship and shared enthusiasm, Harpswell LRs like Jessie nurture common ground as they shape and support a new generation of changemakers.