Christina Eugene has made an incredibly positive impact on Rider’s campus
By Tori Pender
Rider alumna and Assistant Director for Student Recruitment, Selection and Programming Christina Eugene has been an active member on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus.
So far in her time at Rider, Eugene has held multiple titles, including graduate assistant in auxiliary services where she got her first taste of supervising students.
The auxiliary services summer program were study tours where hundreds of international students came and stayed at Rider. Eugene applied and got the position of external operations manager.
“Like planning all the trips, everything,” said Eugene. “There was a position at Rider to work with international students and education and be in residence life. … It was perfect for me.”
Eugene stayed in Residence Life for five years and made her way up the chain to assistant director of the department. As a student navigation coach, Eugene is currently supervising 350 freshman students.
“When the busy times of the semester, like course selection or switching classes at the beginning of the semester, it gets heavy on emails and I never want people to feel like they are neglected,” Eugene said.
However, for Eugene, the rewards outweigh the mass amount of emails.
“I am meeting on Zoom with all of my students and when they either receive the answer or something clicks for them and you see the weight lifted off their shoulders — that is my favorite part,” said Eugene.
In the debut year of the Student Navigation Office, it had to switch up its plans because of the coronavirus.
“We would like to have in-person events and collaborations. Our office still collaborates right now virtually with others,” said Eugene. “We try to do collaborations. I hosted ‘Colorful Connections’ which was a way to have students of color meet all the faculty and staff of color.”
Eugene is actively involved in campus life at Rider. She is the advisor to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Nu Eta Chapter, LOCKS (Loving Our Curly Kinky Straight) Hair club and club softball.
“A human services type of person,” is how Eugene describes herself.
Kayla McIntrye, a global studies major and freshman class president, who has Eugene as her navigation coach said, “She’s great. I actually like her and I think I’m closer to her than any of my professors. She is the one who pushed me to run for freshman class president.”
Yusef Collins-Bryant, popular music studies and art management major and freshman class vice president also has had many encounters with Eugene.
“She has been supportive since before I even came to campus and before she was assigned to be my navigation coach,” said Collins-Bryant. “She got questions answered for me that weren’t even in her department and she constantly encourages us.”
