• Project SEED.  Local high schools students have participated in Ph.D. level chemistry research at Rider each summer.  They work side-by-side with Rider faculty as a result of the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED (Science Education with the Economically Disadvantaged) program, which just completed its 14th year at Rider.  Working in conjunction with local and national sections of the ACS, this year’s corporate sponsors were Aventis, FMC Corporation, Hovione, LL.C., National Starch and Chemical, Janssen Pharmaceutica, and Pharmacopiea, Inc.
   
• Merrill Lynch, Trenton Thunder, and Rider’s Minding Our Business (M.O.B.) program team up to ensure that business- savvy Trenton area youth expand their entrepreneurial bases.  The three-way partnership has enabled youngsters to market their wares to fans that attend Trenton Thunder games through The Merrill Lynch Market Fair Days Program.   The venture builds on the basic educational component of M.O.B., an experiential business program for urban youngsters developed by Dr. Sigfredo Hernandez, associate professor of marketing.
   
• Rider University, in conjunction with the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District’s Department of Special Services, has established an advisory board to assist young adults with various cognitive delays obtain employment with successful outcomes.
   
• Rider’s College of Continuing Students and Quantum Services Group of Howell, a non-profit organization, have formed an educational partnership that will enable Rider to offer its Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree program to working adults across the state.  This summer, the first group of 80 corrections professionals took Rider University courses offered at NJDOC headquarter facilities in Ewing.
   
• Last year, Rider received a start-up planning grant from the Martinson Family Foundation to set the wheels in motion for creating a mathematics teaching professional institute geared for kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers.  The funding comes as a courtesy of John and Margaret Martinson of Hopewell, known statewide as strong advocates for improving the quality of math and science education. Martinson, a venture capitalist, is founder and managing partner of the Edison Venture Fund. Margaret Martinson is a former English teacher.
   
• Rider’s Feed the Hungry Project. Members of the Rider community reach out to those less fortunate in the local community to serve pre-Thanksgiving meals to the homeless in the Trenton area.
   
• Rider’s Thanksgiving Celebration.
   
• Rider’s Giving Trees.  Rider’s Catholic Ministry (CCM) and Association of Commuting Students (ACS) organize a toy drive just before the December holiday season. The names of children from the Mill Hill Child and Family Center – ranging in age from six months to five years – are placed on ornaments. Members of the Rider community are encouraged to bring in age-appropriate toys to be distributed to the children.  CCM and ACS volunteers visit the children to send holiday cheer.
   
• Rider students have played key roles in organizing blood and whole platelet drives on campus with the assistance of Dr. Todd Weber, assistant professor of biology.  The whole-blood drive has been conducted by representatives from the Community Blood Council; the platelet drive by New Jersey Blood Services.  This semester, Rider has a new student blood drive organization.  During the past couple of years, the Black Student Union has sponsored bone marrow testing drives.
   
• LASO’s mentoring program.  LASO members work closely with Trenton area youngsters from Dunn Middle School to provide them with academic guidance and leadership skills.
   

For more information, please contact:

• Christina M. Spoegler Layer
  Director, Corporate & Foundation Relations
  609-896-5167
  cspoegler@rider.edu