Rider University alumnus Ingrid Schoen, who owned Learning Partners educational supply store on Route 130 in Bordentown before closing it in 2006, recently donated nearly $90,000 worth of inventory to the Curriculum Resource Center at Rider’s School of Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Education.
A 1986 Rider graduate who now lives in Florence and is pursuing a master’s degree in curriculum, instruction, and supervision at Rider,
“Rider has given so much to me in so many aspects,” says Schoen, who teaches seventh-grade math in Medford. “I wouldn’t be where I am now without Rider.”
Schoen graduated magna cum laude from Rider with bachelor’s in accounting and finance before holding positions with Arthur Young and WithumSmith+Brown. During that time, she received her CPA and had her first son.
As a 2-year-old, her son began to ask a lot of questions, and Schoen says she wanted to find flashcards and learning materials that could help answer them. When she could not find a store that met her needs, she came up with the idea to start her own educational retail business. She opened Learning Partners in Hamilton in 1990 and moved it to Bordentown in 1999.
Schoen soon found that many students needed help with class work, so she started a tutoring program at the store. This eventually inspired Schoen to become a teacher.
In 2002 Schoen leased out her store and returned to Rider to enroll in the Graduate Level Teacher Certification Program (GLTP), moving a step closer to the front of the classroom. “I could immediately apply everything that I learned at Rider to student teaching,” Schoen said
In 2006, after receiving her certification, and during her first year as a full-time teacher, Schoen resumed control of the store, but realized she could not teach, run the business, and fulfill her family obligations at the same time.
