The Max A. Shacknai Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education (COVE) is celebrating its 25th anniversary of inspiring the Colgate community to give back. The center was born from a proposal that three Colgate students — Betsy Levine-Brown ’01, Jenny (Buntman) ’03 Indig, and Adrienne (LaGier) ’01 Forgette — wrote. In it they shared a vision of creating a centralized hub for community partnerships.
That vision sparked a lasting legacy with thousands of students collectively contributing more than 635,000 hours of service to date valued at nearly $18M to the Hamilton community and beyond. Yet the COVE’s work represents more than just service hours; it fosters reciprocal relationships that continue to shape both those who are served and those who serve long after graduation. To better understand this enduring impact, we spoke with four alumni, who reflected on their COVE experiences and how those experiences continue to influence them today.
Gabriella Bianchi ’19
As a student COVE volunteer, Bianchi co-led the mentoring group Friends First, which paired Colgate students with Hamilton middle schoolers. She remains in touch with her former mentee, now a first-year college student. Bianchi also served as a program coordination intern, where she led pre-orientation for first-years, organized campuswide days of service, and coordinated alternative service breaks.
Today Bianchi is the director of BoardLead at Cause Strategy Partners, a social impact firm focused on nonprofit board governance, where she oversees board matching, placement, and training programs in the U.S., the U.K., and Hong Kong. She also serves as the co-chair of the Fiver Children’s Foundation’s Advocates, a nonprofit summer camp in Poolville, N.Y., founded by Tom Tucker ’67.
How did volunteering through the COVE shape your Colgate experience?
“As a first-year, it’s so easy to stay on campus and only experience what’s immediately available to you. Volunteering in and around central New York allowed me to learn more about our local community and build meaningful relationships with my peers, nonprofit leaders, and the constituents served by these organizations. From harvesting vegetables with elementary students to cleaning cages at a local animal shelter, there are so many wonderful ways to give back to causes and organizations close to campus.”
How did this work influence your career path?
“My experiences at the COVE allowed me to build a career in the social good sector focused on building capacity for nonprofits and providing organizations with the tools and resources they need to best live out their missions. The leaders at the COVE while I was a student were incredible mentors, and I’m grateful for their investment in me.”
Ingrid Hale ’89
Hale served as director of the COVE from 2006–10, advising student service organizations and meeting weekly with student leaders to strengthen their community partnerships. Hale also helped organize and participated in service trips to New Orleans, Texas, and the Dominican Republic, while overseeing other COVE initiatives.
She currently works as a reader in Colgate’s Office of Admission and remains involved in community service organizations.
What was your favorite part of working at the COVE?
“The team — colleagues, interns, leaders. They were incredibly smart, talented, energetic, and fun. I looked forward to coming to the COVE every day to work alongside them to solve real-world community challenges. I also have the fondest of memories from the service trips. It was amazing to immerse ourselves in a community project for an extended period of time. The weeks were humbling, informative, exhausting, fulfilling, uplifting, and wonderful all at the same time.”
How did your time at the COVE influence your lifelong commitment to service?
“Community service was something I was always passionate about. My work at the COVE inspired me to do even more — serving on school boards, volunteering in classrooms and as a coach, providing college counseling to students from underserved communities, and volunteering for campaigns, to name a few. It is important that we engage in society and the world beyond ourselves.”
Georgette Manos ’25
Manos’ involvement with the COVE began before her first day of classes. She participated in a first-year pre-orientation program where she volunteered with community partners — an experience she enjoyed so much that she later stepped up to lead similar trips. As a sophomore, she was hired as a civic engagement intern, a role she continued throughout her time at Colgate, supporting the COVE’s work as a nonpartisan center for voter education and civic engagement.
Manos is currently a JD candidate at American University Washington College of Law.
What did the COVE mean to your undergraduate experience?
“The COVE made up my best memories at Colgate. I met some of my best friends through volunteering and working there. As a civic engagement intern, some of my most rewarding experiences were when I was able to register someone to vote. The COVE is nonpartisan; our biggest thing was wanting students to vote and care about what was going on locally and nationally.”
How did your work at the COVE influence your decision to pursue a law degree?
“I’m someone who really thrives on meeting people from different backgrounds and working with organizations that stand for many different things. Having had the opportunity to engage at the COVE with tutoring and mentorship organizations, organizations centered on food insecurity and combating homelessness, and education and historical groups propelled me to Washington College of Law, which is known for its public interest work. Working with nonprofits and community partners meant so much to me that I wanted to be at an institution that would have similar opportunities.”
Brandon Malmberg ’03
Malmberg was involved in multiple COVE volunteer organizations, including Sidekicks, a program that paired elementary students with a “big brother” or “big sister,” as well as mentoring and tutoring at a group home in Madison, N.Y.
Community service has continued to play a significant role in Malmberg’s career; he now works as an independent consultant for nonprofit organizations.
How did your experiences at the COVE serve your future career path?
“Working with the COVE was a powerful vehicle for leadership. I built skills that I carried through my entire career, through motivating people and organizing efforts to make an impact. I’ve worked for most of my career in the nonprofit sector, and my volunteer experiences at Colgate set the tone for that in a lot of ways.”
How did your volunteer work connect you to the broader community?
“Having a long-standing relationship with a family and with an elementary school boy really got me off campus and into the community. I wouldn’t have visited towns like Earlville, Madison, and other adjacent towns to Hamilton if not for these opportunities. It was very valuable to connect what I was engaging with at Colgate academically to the community it’s situated in.”