LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Experiential learning in a variety of environments is an important key in providing the most extensive career preparation for Rider University students. When career preparation activities can also help to better prepare high school students for their own experiences in college, it's all the more worthwhile.

Such is the notion behind a $10,000 grant from Johnson & Johnson via the Independent College Fund of New Jersey supporting an urban initiative at the University.

Over the past several years, Rider's Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and multicultural center on campus have witnessed a number of urban-based student candidates for admission who come to the University inadequately prepared in terms of social skills and their ability to seek peer support to successfully complete college work. With the aid of this recent grant, a new program called Students Supporting Students will attempt to teach selected students how to develop the self-discipline, team building, and goal setting skills within a cooperative, communal environment.

The program will initially focus on ninth through eleventh grade male outreach students at Trenton Central High School. Other area schools also plan to be involved.

Current undergraduate student leaders at Rider, under the professional guidance of EOP Community Advisory Board members, will benefit from the program by acting as mentors and group work leaders, encouraging these young people to aspire to new heights so that they can become active and productive citizens who have the ability and confidence to make meaningful contributions to society.

"It's basically a triad approach," said Rubin Joyner, Rider's EOP director, who developed the program proposal with Rider's multicultural center director Don Brown. "We're trying to help young people by providing role models for them. Professionals can be role models for high school students, but 16-year-olds relate better to college students because of their age and the fact that college could be their next step in life.

"For Rider students, the program provides them with professional role models from the community. The program should also help recruitment efforts as a pre-college preparation tool. If we work to prepare a certain number of high school students for college, we may get a percentage of them here at Rider."

Teams of University students will meet with Trenton students in a weekly series of interactive sessions. The teams will discuss issues such as team building, leadership development, social responsibility, peer support, job readiness, positive self-esteem, healthy lifestyle, and practical skills and knowledge for success in school.

Training for participants in Students Supporting Students will begin this semester and continue through the summer. Joyner expects the program to officially begin in the fall.

For more information on the program, contact Joyner in Rider's EOP office at (609) 896-5381.

Rider University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian institution with a 353-acre main campus in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and a 23-acre campus in Princeton, New Jersey. The University offers 60 undergraduate programs and 17 graduate programs in the Colleges of Business Administration; Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences; Continuing Studies; and Westminster Choir College.