Sophomore Chris Bove does it all
Photo by James Singer.
Chris Bove, a sophomore studying political science, history and communications at the University of Rhode Island, might be one of the busiest students on campus.
“I’m a triple major, I’m [on] the Board of Trustees, I’m in the Student Senate, I’m the president of [University of Rhode Island Democrats], secretary of [the American Civil Liberties Union of URI], I have an on-campus job, [I’m on] the academic affairs diversity task force and I still serve on the Legislative Committee of the [National Federation of the Blind] of Rhode Island and the Middletown Democratic town committee,” Bove said. “If I can find time for all of that stuff, you can too. Especially with the added [fact that] I can’t even drive myself places, and I still get around to do all these things.”
Bove, originally from Middletown, Rhode Island, is a self-proclaimed political science nerd, hoping to work in the political field one day, although he didn’t always want to become a politician.
“Up until high school I wanted to be an airplane pilot, but being legally blind I knew I couldn’t,” Bove said. “So I told myself I would be a flight attendant until I realized I can’t do that either. So I started watching the news and I thought, ‘this government thing could be pretty cool.’”
Bove got his start in politics when he joined the National Federation of the Blind at 15 years old. Soon after, he was appointed to the legislative board of the Rhode Island branch.
During his junior year of high school, he went to the Christmas tree lighting at the Rhode Island State House for the first time. At the event, he met Governor Gina Raimondo, who gave Bove her business card. On his way home from the event, he sent an email to the governor’s campaign offering to be a campaign volunteer. A few months later, he was one of the first campaign volunteers for Raimondo’s re-election campaign.
Beyond joining Raimondo’s campaign, he also got involved with the Middletown Democratic Town Committee. He began to work his way around the Democratic Party and worked with more state legislators on their campaigns.
“On my birthday [State] Senator Lou Dipalma told me I should take the day off school and spend the day at the Rhode Island State Senate,” Bove said. “I went and the governor actually took 30 minutes out of her day to sit down with me and have a chat. I told her I had applied to an internship in her office and she was like ‘that’s great and I hope you get it, I would love having you here.’”
Bove ended up getting that internship and began working at least 35 hours a week in the Office of the Governor in addition to being in high school. You could often find him taking the bus from the governor’s office to the campaign building, according to Bove.
“I was working [upwards] of 60 hours a week,” Bove said. “I was working for the governor in several capacities, and on the weekends you could find me working on state legislative campaigns.”
He was then appointed to the Rhode Island Board of Education as the K-12 representative of Middletown. After being re-appointed for a full term, Bove was elected as K-12 chair of the Board of Education at 17 years old.
Being active in the Democratic Party in Rhode Island, Bove knew he would get involved in URI Democrats when he came to the University. At the end of his freshman year, amid the chaos sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the position of president was thrust on him by the graduating members.
“A lot of our active members graduated last year in the middle of a pandemic,” Bove said. “There weren’t a lot of people who wanted to do it, so I took it on. It’s definitely a challenge for me to not only be taking over as president coming out of my freshman year where I don’t really have a lot of experience in the organization, but also to try to navigate and build an organization during a time where we’re not allowed to have events. Especially during an election year, because I don’t know what election years are like typically.”
Although student organizations may not be able to operate like they usually do, Bove still hopes to get a lot done in URI Democrats. He is hoping to recruit new members, phone banks for candidates and work to flip the U.S. Senate from Republican to a Democratic majority.
Beyond his work at the URI Democrats, he serves on Student Senate as a senator for the at-large constituency, the chair of the Instruments Committee and the speaker of the Elections Committee.
Through all of his work in the Student Senate, his signature issue is expanding disability services. Last year he worked to expand URI’s U-Pass system, which fully covers students’ RIPTA bus costs, to cover paratransit services for URI students, who only had half of their ride covered. Bove also worked to amend the University manual for final exams in an effort to give students with extended finals a break after three and a half hours of testing.
“Being legally blind, I’m told all the time ‘oh, we’ve never thought about this issue before. It’s never come up,’” Bove said. “That’s because there are not people with disabilities, other than me in Senate who [raise] these issues. So you know, I’ve been using my platform as a senator to bring attention to issues that most people wouldn’t think twice.”
Austyn Ramsay, president of Student Senate, described Bove as a model leader and a model student. She said that Bove is passionate, dedicated, compassionate, loving and a ball of good energy.
“Chris does his duties, he goes above and beyond and everything that he does, he does to the best of his ability,” Ramsay said. “Whether he’s speaking or advocating for something, whether it be a disability, student services, rights or something as simple as helping marginalized students with debt get the financial support that they need, he is such an advocate. He’s always outspoken. He’s the first one to raise his hand, and he is never pressured to silence his own voice. He’s never afraid; he’s unapologetically an advocate at all times.”
Bove’s advice for anyone who is considering a career in government is to take every chance that comes your way.
“It is very, very rare that I say no to something because I know that every action I take is an investment in my political future,” Bove said. “The more people [I] meet, the more I’ll know when I graduate and I start applying for jobs. People in government already know who I am so when I go to apply for positions like that it’s better to go in as someone who is known rather than someone who is a stranger. So I would say, if you think you cannot do it, you can.”