Dan was a founding member and officer of Rider's student sustainability club.
Why Dan chose Rider
Dan wanted a school that offered him hands-on experience with scientific research. But most of the schools he was looking into had large classes and the direct research opportunities were scarce. Then he found Rider. "Rider's faculty is more interested in bringing students into their research than elsewhere," he says.
Transferring as a second-year student, Dan loved Rider’s small classes and engaged faculty. "I wasn't getting the attention I needed at my previous school," he says. “At Rider I wasn’t just another faceless student.”
At Rider I wasn't just another faceless student.
Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta
Rider's impact on Dan's success
As an undergraduate student, Dan had the chance to be an active researcher on projects that helped him build his career. Dan received a Merck/AAAs research grant scholarship to develop an 18-month study on the relationship between nitrogen and the invasive species garlic mustard. When his findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Invasions, Dan was first author, a rare and prestigious designation for an undergraduate. He also traveled to Chicago to present the paper at the Botanical Society of America’s annual meeting — a unique opportunity for an undergraduate that was made possible by his professors at Rider. Dan also collaborated with multiple professors, including Dr. Paul Jivoff, Dr. Laura Hyatt among others, on projects that remain on his CV today. "If you have the motivation and desire to go far, nothing's stopping you. The opportunities at Rider exist."
Continued success
After graduating with honors in environmental science magna cum laude, Dan entered New Mexico State University, where he earned his master's in ecology and evolution and his doctorate in biology with a concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, Dan is conducting research that will directly affect the government's efforts to foster sustainability and delay climate change. "I'm doing what I can to have an impact that will promote a positive environmental change. Rider gave me my start."