Incoming Harvard Extension School students often want to know about the pathway of an average student. It’s a difficult question to answer, because ‘average’ isn’t a word often used to describe our graduates.
Take, for example, Kenneth Tucceri, a museum studies degree candidate with a winding yet purposeful path. His career journey started in the corporate world but was disrupted by a life-altering hike along the Appalachian Trail.
There, he realized he wanted to do more with his life. That epiphany led him to enlist in the Army National Guard, then the Peace Corps, where he taught English and life skills in Lesotho, Africa.
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, you could find him administering protective gear and testing supplies to hard-hit areas in Massachusetts as a specialist with the Guard.
With his museum studies degree, which he’s on track to complete in 2021, Tucceri wants to inspire people through storytelling.
“[Museums] have a really unique part in our society,” Tucceri told the Harvard Gazette. “They are a place people can get necessary primary source information, to tell the stories that are there that can inspire people and guide them through life and elevate their potential.”
Tucceri’s full story is just one part of a Gazette project titled To Serve Better. This extensive project aims to tell the stories of Harvard students, graduates, and faculty across the country who illustrate the message inscribed in Harvard Yard’s Dexter Gate: “Enter to Grow in Wisdom; Depart to Serve Thy Country and Thy Kind.”
Comprising individuals from all 12 degree-granting schools at Harvard University, To Serve Better showcases how this diverse community is united in a singular mission to make the world a better place.
The ways in which students pursue this mission, however, are varied, so the project has four themes:
- Empower: People making a difference through interpersonal interventions and one-on-one help
- Create: Those affecting change through creative endeavors and providing platforms for others
- Respond: Individuals taking action in response to events both big and small
- Improve: People pursuing macro-level changes through civic and governmental service
To Serve Better features an interactive map where you can find profiles by region, school, or theme. Be sure to visit and see how Harvard students, alumni, and faculty are using their knowledge to create their own paths, and improve those of others.
