LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Sharon R. Vater is certainly no stranger to accolades.

Since arriving on Rider's campus as a high school valedictorian in 1994 she has been an academic superstar, earning praise as a three-year Andrew J. Rider Scholar, Alpha Epsilon Zeta honor society inductee, and summa cum laude graduate at the University's 133rd Commencement last month.

It's no surprise then that such a decorated scholar would become the first Rider student to be honored as a recipient of the Commissioner's Distinguished Teacher Candidate Award given by the New Jersey Department of Education.

"I got goosebumps all over when I got the news," said Vater, who was honored along with 16 other recipients during a recent State Board of Education meeting in Trenton. "I was told that no one from Rider had received the award in a long time, so 'don't get my hopes up.' I had put it in the back of my mind.

"I'm sure it'll go a long way in getting me a good job."

The award recognizes the top graduates of teacher preparation programs administered by New Jersey colleges and universities. Nominees from each school are reviewed by a panel of veteran educators who determine which teacher candidates are "exceptionally well prepared for entry into the teaching profession."

Vater, whose family hails from Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, is now searching the central New Jersey region for just that job. Currently living in Quakertown, NJ -- not far from the Edison, NJ home of her sister Rebecca A. Vater, also a multiple Andrew J. Rider Scholar and summa cum laude graduate in 1997 -- she received one job offer within two weeks of commencement. More opportunities are sure to follow.

She is quick to attribute her sparking academic résumé to the comprehensive, field placement-oriented student-teaching program at the University.

"The one thing that a lot of interviewers have mentioned is all the experiences I've had in high schools and middle schools, starting with my sophomore year," said Vater, who now holds a B.A. degree from Rider in secondary education and mathematics. "Usually, most college graduates only have one student-teaching experience. Rider has given me a lot of student-teaching experiences in the field, which has definitely helped prepare me."

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 58 undergraduate programs and 17 graduate programs in the Colleges of Business Administration; Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences; Continuing Studies; and Westminster Choir College. Ninety-three percent of the faculty hold doctoral or other appropriate advanced degrees. U.S. News and World Report has again ranked Rider in the top tier of northern universities based on the quality of its programs.