New York Giants join forces with Rider
By Logan VanDine and Benjamin Shinault
Rider announced Sept. 20 that it had settled on a multi-year partnership with the New York Giants, becoming an “official higher education partner” in hopes to give students hands-on experience within the sports world.
The partnership offers students the opportunity to work in many facets within the organization, from business side to gameday operations, leading to part-time to full-time internships.
“What distinguishes Rider from other universities is the sum of the many experiences we offer in and out of the classroom,” Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo said in a statement about the partnership. “Aligning with the New York Giants will greatly enhance our emphasis on helping students discover their focus and expand upon classroom knowledge through hands-on experiences. We are delighted to be partners with the Giants and give our students this one-of-a-kind opportunity.”
Jessica Slenker, the Giants’ senior vice president within the corporate partnerships division, spoke out in a press release that Rider and the Giants have similarities as organizations.
“Rider University shares many of our same core values, which is why we are excited to kick off this partnership.” Slenker said. “So much of our business revolves around hands-on opportunities and we are thrilled to create new ones together with the team at Rider University.”
Kristine Brown, the associate vice president of Marketing and Communications for the university, agreed that the opportunities for Rider students in the partnership are rewarding for both parties.
“Certainly a commitment to bring excellence, a commitment to bringing students educational opportunities and another big part of this partnership is a commitment to the community,” Brown said. “The partnership goes beyond internships. One of them is to do some community service work with the Giants and Rider.”
Brown gave more insight into how this partnership first came about, and when the two sides mutually agreed to the unique partnership.
“We’ve been working with the Giants for a little more than a year, and the first year that we were working together was a partnership of just trying to raise the brand of Rider through some of the Giants media outlets that they have,” Brown said. “They’re such a great organization to work with.”
Brown also touched on how proud she and the university is to be able to partner with such a prestigious NFL franchise.
“We’re extremely proud, it’s a perfect organization for Rider to partner with to elevate our brand,” Brown said. It’s an extremely valuable opportunity for our two organizations to partner together.
Rider is known for giving their students as many opportunities they can before they put on the cap and gown at graduation. These internship opportunities could be extremely attractive to business, sports media and sports management majors at the university.
“It’s certainly an amazing experience doing real work with an NFL team and being able to put it on your resume is going to help any student stand out when they are graduating and looking for a job,” Brown said.
Both parties are still adding in the final details on what the partnership would officially be, but both are anticipating to extend well-beyond their mutually agreed three year partnership.
“The Giants are a family organization, they’re not looking for partners that will fly in and fly out. This is something that they would love to build upon… and I know the university as a whole would love to build upon,” said Brown.
The collaboration will surely open many doors for any student that would be interested in working in the business or sports world.
