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The COVE is a center of citizenship and community building. We are focused on challenging our students to become engaged, civic-minded citizens of the world.
See what we're all about - check out our philosophy!
We refer to our volunteers as community builders and we refer to our activity as public work. We define this as work by ordinary citizens to create and recreate the places that anchor our lives.
Most of all we embrace democracy. We help students develop the skills of citizenship, while giving them opportunities to use these skills to enhance the upstate region.
To do this, we provide multiple ways for students and faculty to do community work through volunteer organizations, service learning classes, summer internships, career counseling, and residential life programs.
We believe educational institutions should be central to this quest. From Thomas Jefferson’s founding of the university of Virginia to Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia Academy to the writings of John Dewey, the great contribution of American educational institutions has been their commitment to the democratic spirit and broad public purpose.
America’s challenges at the beginning of a new century are two-fold: to create healthy communities that can meet the multiple needs of people within a rapidly changing and globalizing world; and the widespread re-engagement of a citizenry as the driving force in public life that can provide the wise and ethical leadership needed to produce and sustain these communities.