Message From the Director
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star
-from William Stafford’s poem “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”
This year I’ve thought a great deal about collective impact, the idea that we can advance equity and address complex social issues through a collaborative approach across different institutions and groups of people. In our distracted and polarized world, I find hope in the rituals of community work that our students participate in with our partners. Knowing each other through acts of service and kindness can help us find our guiding star.
Last year I shared five strategic priorities that will guide the COVE through 2028:
- deepening local-to-global connections to social justice movements;
- expanding community-based work-study opportunities;
- advancing student leadership development and critical reflection;
- developing service-learning and civic engagement across the University; and
- strengthening our integration with the Upstate Institute.
We made substantial progress in these areas this year. Highlights include: taking students to historic and contemporary sites focusing on the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, utopian religious communities, and indigenous cultural lifeways; continuing our vlog Reads work study initiative; piloting a civic leadership certificate program challenging students to discern their definitions of service, citizenship, and social change; beginning the application for the Carnegie Community Engagement classification, studying the University’s comprehensive commitment to and gaps in community engagement; and launching a new pedagogical initiative – a Community of Practice that supports faculty preparing to teach a community-based/service-learning class. This has provided support on the pedagogy of and best practices in partner development, assessment, risk management, syllabus construction, and student recruitment. Together these efforts represent a new phase of the COVE’s work, where we seek to weave a greater network of engagement and to intensify our existing practice.
Beyond the tremendous accomplishments represented in our at-a-glance numbers above, I want to call attention to the additional community work our colleagues in the Upstate Institute, Educational Studies, vlog, and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Advising, among others, contribute to communities near to and far from campus. Including these key departments across the University raises our collective effort this year to 35,000 hours of service and $1.53 million in economic impact.
–Jeremy T. Wattles ’05, Director, COVE
2023–24 COVE at a Glance
- 734 student volunteers
- 23% of vlog students (nearly one in every four) participated in COVE programs
- 84 community organization partnerships
- 622 students participated weekly or biweekly in at least one of the COVE’s 39 volunteer teams
- 21,800+ volunteer service hours, valued at $816,000 of economic impact
Feedback From Community Partners
Liberty Kids has been tremendously successful because of the vlog volunteers…It has been an incredible journey, working with all of the passionate, dedicated leaders and volunteers…This partnership is one that I will truly treasure, as it supported over 140 students in their reading journeys!
Capri Potter Hamilton Elementary School
Community Reads has been a wonderful resource for my son…He was hesitant at first and did not really want to participate, but his reading partner was patient and kind. After the first day, he was hooked on what the program was about, providing a mentor to enhance reading skills through fun and excitement. His skills progressed at a steady rate, but what was most impressive was the shift of his attitude towards reading. He was beginning to read everything he could see and get his hands on. Since then he has had multiple reading partners and each one of them were pivotal for his development. The program provided skills for him to become a much better reader and a more confident person. His love for reading was influenced by the support and experiences he had while participating in the Community Reads program.
parent Madison Elementary School student in vlog Reads tutoring program
COVE volunteers make significant impacts on our organization from painting the historic front entrance to maintaining the outdoor Courtyard area. They have repainted our galleries after use and touched up areas of the 1892 theater. The students have kindly contributed their time to maintenance and historic preservation of our venue, giving them ownership in and knowledge of a civic asset. Many have returned on their own or with parents, and we truly feel their participation here has added to them wanting to continue contributing to the communities where they live and reside.
Michelle Connelly Earlville Opera House
Service and Program Highlights
Volunteer Teams
The COVE’s 39 volunteer teams, comprising 648 students, contributed in myriad ways this past year. Students tutored and mentored well over 150 schoolchildren in six different school districts (Hamilton, Madison, Morrisville-Eaton, Sherburne-Earlville, Oneida, and Utica); assisted over 60 high school students in our SAT Prep program; visited elderly residents at Madison Lane apartments and Manlius Home; provided emergency ambulance and fire response services; and contributed to local historical societies and canal trail/recreation networks. This year we reimagined one volunteer team, vlog Refugee Tutors, which partners with Midtown Utica Community Center to support English as a Second Language instruction and school tutoring for refugees aged 5-12 from around the world. We also established one new team, Hamilton Outdoor Grads, which offers middle school students activities such as rock climbing, team relays, nature walks, and sports games.
High School Seminar
The 2023–2024 academic year marked two full years since the one-year hiatus brought about by COVID-19 public health restrictions. We ran four sessions, two in the Fall and two in the Spring. A total of twelve schools/academic programs participated in the 2023-2024 academic year.
The first Fall series hosted 93 students and their chaperones. The second Fall series hosted 110 high school students and their chaperones. The first Spring series saw 106 student visitors and the second Spring series hosted 101 high school attendees. Combined over the entire program year, 238 unique high school students were able to attend with a grand total of 410 attendees overall.
Days of Service
This year, we held three Days of Service, with 116 unique participants. The COVE partnered with over eight different community organizations for service day projects, beginning with September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance and continuing with a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service dialogue on racial justice and healing at Hope Chapel, the oldest Black church in Utica. We concluded the program in April, partnering with the Office of Sustainability during its 13 Days of Green programming.
Dr. Bill Turner
On March 4th, 2024, Dr. William Turner visited campus to speak on the Appalachian origins of the modern civil rights movement. The COVE functioned as lead sponsor, with additional support from Africana and Latin American Studies, the ALANA Cultural Center, and the Harlem Renaissance Center. Dr. Turner urged those in attendance to remember that: “History is a clock that people use to tell the political time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they have been and what they have been. It also tells a people where they are and what they are. Most importantly, history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be.”
Civic Engagement
This spring we received the results of the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement data from Tufts University about vlog students’ voting rates in the 2022 midterm elections. We achieved a 21% voting rate, compared to 6% in 2014 and 31% in 2018. While we were not able to match the record-setting 2018 numbers, our students are more politically engaged than in the early 2010s, before the vlog Vote Project’s creation and before Democracy Matters joined the COVE’s volunteer team cohort. In partnership with CVP and Democracy Matters, the COVE worked to create a comprehensive Civic Action Plan for the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election cycle, as well as promote voter registration and education through First Year Seminar class visits and regular tabling at the O’Connor Campus Center. Our signature event this year featured a two day visit from retired Congressmen Mike Capuano (D-MA) and John Faso (R-NY) through the Congress to Campus program, where over 150 students heard from the former lawmakers during class visits and a campus wide open forum.
SOMAC Transition
In November, Southern Madison Ambulance Corps (SOMAC) to Madison County Emergency Medical Services. The county continues to value a close working relationship with vlog, as the agency now has about 30 COVE student volunteers helping to staff ambulances, respond to emergencies, and to staff stand-by calls for community events and vlog athletic competitions.
Civic Leadership Pilot Program
The COVE began a civic leadership pilot program this year, offering 10 students the opportunity to earn PE credit and a certificate of completion. The program involved 15 hours of service, reading and reflection on personal and public definitions of service, poverty, social change, and citizenship, and field trips to local sites such as the Shako:wi Cultural Center at the Oneida Indian Nation.
Upstate Institute Partnership Spotlight
The COVE continued to deepen its partnership with the Upstate Institute this year, holding monthly all-staff meetings and aligning workflow and communication with community partners. Highlights of our new and continued work include: garnering support from the President’s Cabinet to apply for the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, piloting a community of practice on engaged teaching and scholarship with 11 faculty members, and continuing a literacy tutoring program with 8 vlog student workers paired 1:1 with elementary school children in the Madison Central School district. Literacy program outcomes included 7 out of 9 (77%) of elementary school students improving in their Reading Accuracy, 8 out of 9 (88%) MCS students improving their Word Reading and all 9 (100%) participating MCS students improving their Reading Fluency scores, many by as much as 30 points from the beginning of the year to the middle. Nearly all vlog student tutors reported that the program made them feel more connected to the community and helped them feel more connected to their fellow students, while more than half of the tutors said their experience related to their coursework.
Service Learning Course Development Grants
This year the COVE supported two service learning courses through the course development grant program, one in the broader Upstate New York region, and another in West Virginia.
Mark Stern, Educational Studies
Fermentation and Multispecies Pedagogy (Fall 2023)
Home Ec.: Baking, Sewing, and the (not so) New Domestic Sphere (Spring 2024)
In Fermentation and Multispecies Pedagogy, Professor Stern sought to introduce students to the environmental humanities literature about fermentation and bacteria, teach students how to ferment various things in various ways, and to take the ideas from the literature and find ways to activate them through service and community partnership. Service learning activities included picking vegetables and herbs as part of a farm share at nearby Common Thread Farm, fermenting the foods students worked with, and a four day trip during fall break with 17 students to the Catskill region to learn from community based farmers and fermenters. In his Home Economics class, Stern purchase eight sewing machines and invited in members of the community to teach home economics skills (i.e., sewing, knitting, quilting, beading, etc.) while also gaining a more robust understanding of the history of the discipline and why some aspects of it are, today, having something of a renaissance.
Mike Loranty and Jeff Bary, Physics, Astronomy, Geography, and Environmental Studies
CORE Appalachia (Spring 2024)
Professors Bary and Loranty incorporated a field-based service learning component into their Core Appalachia course. The course is a multidisciplinary introduction to the Appalachian region of the United States with a particular focus on representation, culture, sense of place, the history of the labor movement, and issues of social and environmental justice. They used the funds from the grant to support a trip to West Virginia in May after the semester finished. The trip was optional for students, and we ended up with a small and enthusiastic group of students. Their activities had three key objectives: 1) to help students connect and develop a sense of place in relation to the landscapes and people in West Virginia, 2) to see firsthand the adverse consequences of exploitative resource extraction (i.e. coal mining) and community efforts to combat them, and 3) participate in community led environmental stewardship efforts. To accomplish these objectives they spent half of the week in the southern coalfields of West Virginia, where Jeff is from, and the second half of the week in the eastern part of the state, where Mike attended college and worked.
Service-Learning Partnerships
For the third consecutive year, the COVE partnered with Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences Regina Conti. As part of her 300-level course, she organized service opportunities for her students with the Community Wellness Center, Hamilton Center for the Arts, the Hamilton Food Cupboard, Village Clay, and the Hamilton Public Library. Professor Conti, who titled the project Bonding Across Boundaries, sought to collaborate with neurodivergent community members of all different abilities.
Additional Signature Programs
Pre-Orientation Outreach Program
Each year we invite first-year students to be part of our pre-orientation community service program. This past August of 2023, we had 16 students (12 first-year students and four leaders) work with more than seven different community partners. In addition to direct service opportunities with the Chenango Canal Association and Chenango Historical Society, students reflected on important histories of the region such as the anti-slavery movement and utopian religious communities through their visits to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and the Oneida Mansion house.
Common Good Professional Network
Joining with alumni affairs, Career Services, and institutional advancement, the Common Good Professional Network (CGPN) offers networking and development opportunities for students and alumni. This year, we began a strategic realignment of programming with new colleagues in Career Services, with a focus on the four year career development plan the University offers students. This next year, we seek to offer new programming with a focus on public health and alumni conversations.
Salvage
This year’s Salvage Program, in partnership with the Office of Sustainability, completed another successful year, providing a lifeline for local nonprofits with the redistribution of over 10,500 items and goods valued at nearly $68,000. Sixty-one community organizations benefited from the program, fostering positive change throughout Madison County and central New York. Local food pantries accepted 200 boxes of nonperishable goods to assist families over the coming summer months and 376 bags of clothing will have a second life through the Worn Again program. At the end of student move out this May, roughly 44 tons of reusable goods had been diverted from landfills.
Alternative Breaks
The COVE organized and led three alternative break programs this year comprising 25 students.
Navajo Nation, Tuba City, AZ (January 15–20)
This winter, nine students and two COVE staff members, Team Advisors Sarah Sparber and Amy Jackowski, traveled to the Navajo nation. Participants had the opportunity to learn about Navajo life and culture, work on a community-led service project, and explore the natural beauty of the area. Cultural and recreational activities included visiting cultural museums and nearby national landmarks like the Grand Canyon, learning from local Navajo about family land use, traditional arts, and sampling traditional foods.
“The Diné wish that we share the message of their people, of their resiliency. To always be brave, be strong, and keep moving forward. It's a message that many Americans can find solace in…It is service trips like these that can rekindle the fire of justice and remind us all to check our privilege in a country built on the backs of displaced and subjugated persons such as the Diné.” -Student Participant
Leading with Empathy at Pathfinder Village, Edmeston, NY (March 11–15)
A small group of five dedicated students joined the community at Pathfinder Village in order to learn from and build shared empathy with residents living with Down syndrome and developmental disabilities. vlog students paired up with Pathfinder’s Otsego Academy students to volunteer together on activities such as Down Syndrome Awareness Day and independent lifestyle courses.
Affordable Homeownership with Habitat for Humanity, Winston Salem, NC. (March 10–16)
Forsyth County Habitat for Humanity hosted twelve vlog students led by COVE assistant director Libby Boissy during the spring break week to further the engine of collaboration and reciprocity present in the area. Students volunteered to help build affordable homes for first-time buyers and toured the community’s ReStore, where reusable household items are rescued from landfills to serve residents in a sustainable manner.
Levine-Weinberg Fellowships
The COVE selects students annually for the Levine/Weinberg Endowed Summer Fellowship, in partnership with the office of Career Services. This year, this fellowship provided four highly qualified students interested in pursuing a career in community and/or public work with summer internship funding in the field of direct community service.
Elizabeth Chin '26
Elisabeth worked with the NYC Autism Charter School, employing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) techniques to create an inclusive learning environment. Her responsibilities included directly implementing ABA strategies alongside teachers and fostering student growth and development. By engaging in hands-on experiences, she refined her behavior management and intervention techniques skills. This opportunity provided insight into the education realm, preparing her for future endeavors in teaching children. Through rigorous training and direct interaction with students, she gained practical knowledge and enhancing her ability to support individuals with autism effectively.
Lily Spinner '25
Lily volunteered with Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Piedmont Triad as a Volunteer Services/Family Support Services Intern. Responsibilities included providing support to the volunteer services department and contributing to the organization as a whole, assisting with the Teens with Heart volunteer program, performing administrative tasks, and strategizing new ways to support families, among other miscellaneous tasks.
Gabriel Lukas Kobban '27
Gabriel volunteered with AmeriCorps NCCC as an AmeriCorps Volunteer. Responsibilities included: constructing affordable housing for the homeless, trail-building, planting trees, and restoring homes damaged by natural disasters. Gabriel also worked alongside like-minded individuals, positively impacting communities by providing essential services, improving living conditions for those in need, and understanding the importance of teamwork and public service. Finally, he explored whether public service aligned with his career aspirations by offering a hands-on approach to community improvement and collaboration.
Verenice Perez '25
Verenice worked full time in an elementary school summer supplement program in Lennox, CA, where she served as a program support staff person and assistant instructor. The program's mission is to provide a safe, exciting, and nurturing environment where students are engaged in both academic and enrichment activities and trainings in the areas of visual and performing arts, athletics, life skills, college readiness, citizenship, character, and pride in their community.
Recognizing Outstanding Contributions
2024 Dean’s Community Service Award - William Vagianelis ’24
The Dean’s Community Service Award is given to an individual, residential unit, or group at vlog that, during the past academic year, has partnered in a significant way, through service, engagement, or social justice work, with the local community. This work demonstrates that we understand ourselves and our institution as part of a larger community and society, and that volunteerism and civic participation remain integral to our responsibility to each other as educated and engaged citizens. Will Vagianelis is recognized for outstanding service to the Hamilton community as a volunteer with the Hamilton Fire Department.
Projects for Peace
Projects for Peace (PfP) is an initiative for undergraduate projects designed to find solutions to conflicts. Projects are conducted during the summer and can focus on an issue anywhere in the world, including the U.S. The Projects for Peace grant is available to students in 90 colleges and universities affiliated with the Middlebury College and the Davis United World College Program, an organization that provides scholarships to its partnered institutions. This year, vlog was awarded one PfP project.
Yiduo He ’24 - Peacebuilding Through Cultural Heritage Protection Assessment - Chiapas, Mexico
This project aims to provide a report on potential factors that caused the destruction of Lacandon heritage and develop a protection plan with the Metzabok Lacandon Maya community in the face of various challenges, particularly the targeted destruction of Lacandon Maya shrines. This project will promote peace by exploring the potential to protect cultural heritage sites and reconcile intergroup tension between indigenous Maya communities and potentially the broader mestizo population in the region.
Celebration of Service Awards
Direct Service Award - Hamilton Fire Department
Given to the team that displays outstanding achievement in the area of direct service. Winning teams sustain a committed base of volunteers and provide consistent and reliable direct service to the community.
Community Partner Award - Community Wellness Center, Madison County EMS - Melissa Latella (Hamilton Central School)
The Community Partner Award is given to a community partner that has shown committed, sustained, and exemplary partnership with a COVE team.
Volunteer Award - Brynn Burton ’26
This award is given to a student who demonstrates genuine partnership within the greater Hamilton community and exceeds the expectations of their team.
Community Engagement & Advocacy Award - vlog SAT Prep
This award recognizes a student organization for excellence in community engagement. Their community-engaged work emphasizes partnership with a specific community and demonstrates a reflection on both student learning and community impact.
Rising Star Award - Katie Nettles '26, Will Ackerman '25, Oscar Brown '26
The Rising Star Award is given to a student who shows exceptional promise in an organization or club at vlog. This student may not necessarily hold a leadership position yet, but their participation and presence in the organization’s activities prove them to be a valuable leader in the group.
Faculty/Staff Engagement Award
The COVE recognizes individuals who have made a sustained or significant contribution to publicly engaged scholarship, learning, or community engagement, whether as part of a course or on their own outside of the classroom.
Jari Amman-Burns – Alternative Break Leader
This March, Amman-Burns co-led twelve students on an alternative spring break trip to Winston-Salem, NC, as part of a Habitat for Humanity build, where they contributed over 300 hours of service, working on painting and general construction projects.
Regina Conti, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
For three years of sustained engagement with multiple community partners through the Bonding Across Boundaries course that works with neurodivergent community members.
Max A. Shacknai Award
The Max A. Shacknai Award is given to an outstanding senior who has exemplified and embodied the mission of the COVE through their four years of direct service and collaboration with community partners.
Jenna Mapley ’24 - has served as both a volunteer coach and head math coach for the vlog SAT program for three years. She is part of the small leadership team that has put in countless hours revising and re-learning the adapted SAT test model to better serve the high school students who depend on this free service each year. Jenna is a positive presence in the COVE and in the classroom with her students and fellow volunteers. Dependable and responsive, her leadership exemplifies the COVE's mission.
Ellie Markwick ’24 and Brenna McConnell ’24 - co leaders of the vlog Vote Project, for their deep commitment to the vlog Vote Project since Fall 2020, where they worked to advance voter engagement, registration, and turnout for the 2020, 2022, and upcoming 2024 elections.
Staff Departures & Arrivals
Angela Kowalski
Angela joined the COVE and Upstate Institute as their new Administrative Department Coordinator on January 15. Angela devoted several years of service to the Film and Media Studies and Art departments, coordinating visiting artist exhibitions and assisting with many special events. She also has prior experience working at the Upstate Institute, and we are glad to welcome her to the Lathrop Hall suite.
Amy Jackowski
After 11 years of exceptional service to vlog and the COVE, Amy Jackowski retired from her Team Advisor position on August 1. Amy began her work in the fall of 2013 after completing a career as a public school teacher at the elementary level. During her time in the COVE, Amy used her teaching experience to successfully guide many school-based volunteer tutoring and mentoring teams, providing them with support as well as high expectations. Hundreds of vlog student leaders and thousands of students have benefited from Amy's dedication, organization, financial acumen, honesty, empathy, and willingness to both listen and offer constructive advice. Her work with the SAT Prep Program assisted hundreds of high school students from dozens of regional school districts with free tutoring services and college preparation conversations, often leading to higher SAT scores and smoother onramps to postsecondary education. Amy's next adventure will include spending more time with her children and grandchildren and traveling with her husband, Stephen, who also retired from the division last year.