Mercer has a new full-time Professor of Biology, Ami Rivera. Rivera, who was previously a Teaching Assistant in the department, previously took classes at Rider University and earned her M.S. from Drexel. She is also a mom, a CrossFit coach and athlete, and a small business owner.
One of Professor Rivera’s former students, Joe Villegas says, “The first day of class, my first impression was ‘Wow! She means business!…She’s not messing around.’ She was the kind of teacher that instills hard work ethics in her students.”
Another student, Tim Hughes, a 2018 Mercer Physical Therapy Assistant program graduate says, “[Professor Rivera] isn’t one of those people that does her lecture and goes home. She takes a personal stake in wanting people to succeed if she can help them.”
In an interview with Professor Rivera, she said, “On a personal level I hope I make an impact with students because I’ve been in similar shoes.”
Rivera, who is of Hispanic and Italian descent, was on her own by age 16, working through school to make ends meet and juggling different roles at the same time. Rivera says she understands what it’s like to be a struggling student.
Professor of Biology Ellen Genovesi says of her new colleague, “She finds a good balance between offering assistance but wants her students to figure things out on their own.” She adds, “She works very well independently, and she is a real asset to JKC [our Trenton campus]. She is bilingual; she speaks Spanish. That is a big advantage with the students we have downtown.”
Professor Rivera says the connections she makes with students are what make her work particularly meaningful. She gave an example of one former student saying, “I had her in BIO 103 and at the end of the semester we talk about the nervous system, and she pulled me aside and said, my dad just got diagnosed with ALS and I don’t know what that means,”
Professor Rivera stayed for two hours after class to explain the diagnosis of ALS, also known as Lou Gherig’s Disease, what it means on a biological level and on a practical one. The student went on to graduate and complete the nursing program. She was able to then take care of her sick father until his passing a year later.
“I was so proud of her, and to this day she’ll reach out to me every now and then and she’ll thank me. That’s the ultimate compliment to know that she went through all of that and still made her dreams happen and she lives that out through [her dad], and for him,” says Rivera.
Professor of Biology and Department Personnel Committee chair, Ron Smith told the VOICE, “Students are very engaged in [Professor Rivera’s] class, I feel that the students have a lot of respect for her; she is interactive, she gives a lot of good examples that apply to everyday life, and I think that just allows students to connect to that information that could be difficult to understand.”
Genovesi says, “When we interviewed her, we were very impressed because we asked her to do a demonstration on how to use a microscope and she seems to explain things in the correct technical terms but in a way that a student that never used a microscope would understand…..that is what impressed us most.”
Professor Rivera has a busy life outside the classroom as well.
“The other thing that has still been the love of my life is sports,” she says.
Rivera is the former President of the Sons of Ben Major League Soccer boosters’ organization in Philadelphia, a volunteer position, and the co-creator of a new company called Before90 Productions, that covers that Women’s National Soccer League. The company focuses on the lives of female athletes.
“The salaries [women in the National Soccer League] get are abysmal in comparison to the men’s. They don’t train any differently. They don’t train any less, play any less and yet the conditions are way worse for them,” Rivera says. This issue inspired her and her business partner, Britanni Bartok, to give these women athletes more significant media attention.
Before90’s social media describes what they offer as “Content that entertains, informs, inspires, & transforms the way you see players, teams, & the cities that host them before their next 90 minutes.”
Entertaining, informing, inspiring and transforming are all words that describe Rivera herself, especially in the eyes of her students, friends and colleagues.
Note: The above articled has been edited to clarify that Prof. Rivera took classes at Rider University but did not receive her B.S. from that institution, that she is part Hispanic but not Puerto Rican, and that her role for Sons of Ben was volunteer in nature.
