You may have sent an email to Jorge Rivera asking to make an appointment at the Career Center; however, you may have emailed the wrong Jorge Rivera.
But this issue doesn’t bother Jorge E. Rivera and Jorge A. Rivera, the father-and-son duo who work at Seton Hall.
“[It’s] an instance that repeats itself,” said Jorge A. Rivera, son and digital media specialist in the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center (TLTC).
“I'll get emails that are sent, and I have to forward them, and it's just become a routine where I'm like…I’ll send a little smiley face off, and [Jorge E. Rivera] receive[s] it and he knows it's from me,” A. Rivera said. “He'll receive emails that are mine, and I'm like, ‘Oh, there's another thing from him.’”
Sometimes it goes further than just emails.
A. Rivera said he sometimes receives his father’s meeting invites. Jorge E. Rivera, director of the Career Center, said he sometimes receives his son’s packages.
“Other than that, it doesn't really doesn't affect me,” E. Rivera said. “Sometimes…I'll get a box delivered to our office, and I'm just like…I never ordered this, you know, thank God I didn't return it.”
It hasn’t always been like this for the father and son. There was a time when Jorge E. Rivera was the only Jorge Rivera who worked at SHU.
E. Rivera didn’t know much about SHU then, when he first started working as an assistant director in the Career Center, but he felt it was a natural fit.
“I felt like it was a natural fit, just because of what Seton Hall stands for, in terms of community, and I fit right in with the team, so it was a lot of fun,” E. Rivera said.
Before stepping foot on SHU’s South Orange campus, E. Rivera worked in Union County College’s career center. He saw SHU as an opportunity to move from a two-year community college to a four-year university.
“[I] thought it was a great challenge for me to be able to do what I've been doing at a two-year school, but in this case, with undergrads and grad students and even working with alumni, so it was just about the opportunity of continuing to learn within the career development aspect of my job,” E. Rivera said.
But it wasn’t only SHU being a four-year university that drew E. Rivera in. He admired SHU’s mission to develop students into servant leaders and how the university is centered around community.
“I just wanted to be a part of that,” E. Rivera said.
In the Fall 2021 semester, E. Rivera’s predecessor retired. His boss approached him and encouraged him to apply to become director of the Career Center. At first, E. Rivera was hesitant.
“I just thought that what I was doing, helping students and still being part of a team [as assistant director] was just as valuable, but my boss was just like, ‘No, I want you to think about it again,’” E. Rivera said. “I thought about it and…I was like, ‘Sure, I'll apply,’ and that's how it started.”
Now, one may think A. Rivera, who graduated in the class of 2025, attended SHU because his father, E. Rivera, works at the university, but A. Rivera said that’s not the reason why he came to SHU.
“I chose Seton Hall because of the value, you know, not just the value, but, geographically, it's very close. I wasn't looking to go very far from home,” A. Rivera said. “I wanted to get an education that was, you know, I can be connected to my family. I can still maintain my home life, while also kind of exploring my own individuality.”
“That’s something my dad really liked about Seton Hall, and he went here,” A. Rivera added.
That’s right, E. Rivera also attended SHU, earning a master’s degree in strategic communication and leadership in 2015. A. Rivera said he used to join his father’s study sessions in Walsh Library in late middle school to early high school.
“He's like, ‘All right, just come with. I'll be studying. We'll be here for two, three hours or more, and you can just play games on the computer,’” A. Rivera said. “I log into the computer, he’d give me his login and [I’d play] little web games.”
This is a memory A. Rivera said he looks back on with endearment; however, he said he recognizes that both his and his father’s experiences as students at SHU look quite different.
“[My dad] took his master's so, like he wasn't, or he wasn't hanging around the UC [University Center] like that wasn't a thing— I was doing that, I was walking around between classes, meeting different people, different educational experiences,” A. Rivera said.
Having started SHU as a student in August 2021, A. Rivera kept his father’s role in the university on the “down low.”
“Not only is he a lot of people's career advisor, [but] friends of mine, he is [also] the advisor for,” A. Rivera said.
On top of that, A. Rivera also mentioned that E. Rivera was an Oral Communication professor, now called Speaking and Listening in a Digital and Global Age, which all students take to fulfill a university core requirement.
“You just come across way too many people that know him, as a student,” A. Rivera said. “So I'm like, you know, if they talk to me about it, I'll bring it up.”
During his time as a student, A. Rivera was the director of programming at SHU TV, a role he created, and assistant news director at WSOU. Both organizations aligned with his career interests as a visual sound media major and helped him grow.
Like A. Rivera, father E. Rivera also took an interest in broadcast television, studying television production at Hofstra University during his undergrad. Like father, like son.
“It's interesting, because it wasn't something that I said, oh, you should study this, you know, it was more he just had a natural talent to work in that type of industry, and so it's interesting, because we both have the same interest,” E. Rivera said.
And now, both Riveras work in higher education.
“It's very, very interesting how that happened,” E Rivera said.
Inner dialog plagued A. Rivera as he was looking for jobs during his last semester at SHU. At the “tail end,” A. Rivera said a path opened up for him with TLTC.
“The Innovation Hub at Walsh Library was going to be opening, and they needed somebody to help facilitate that opening, because it's a huge space, production studio, podcast booths, the whole nine yards,” A. Rivera said.
He connected with members of TLTC and told them he was interested in the job opening. After getting the job, A. Rivera said he was “super happy.”
“It just fuels that family background…there's a lot of roots here,” A. Rivera said.
“I really thought he was going to go into New York or some other faraway land and what makes me really proud is the fact that he really did this on his own,” E. Rivera added.
Now that both Riveras work at SHU, one is left to wonder if they’ve worked together or had meetings together. E. Rivera said yes, there’s been an instance.
“There was one time where there was a meeting taking place, andI saw [A. Rivera’s] name when you get a virtual invite and I was about to join, but then something happened,” E. Rivera said. “I had to go to a different meeting, and then I was like… my son is at this meeting.”
“It was the first time that I experienced what it would feel like to work with a family member,” E. Rivera added.
E. Rivera and A. Rivera are not the only Riveras who have attended SHU.
“My mother now studies here,” A. Rivera said.
“Seeing each other on campus, I'm like, ‘Wait, that's my wife. That's my son,’” E. Rivera added.
And yes, they do commute together.
The family legacy continues; however, it may or may not be extended. E. Rivera’s youngest son, also A. Rivera’s younger brother, Antonio, is a junior in high school. He’s beginning to look at colleges, and SHU may be an option.
“He's looking at Seton Hall, not just because I work here, or because his brother went to school here, or because his mom is getting an education, but I think that he's looking at it because he sees our experience in different levels and sees what Seton Hall has to offer,” E. Rivera said.
E. Rivera said he would call this a family legacy.
“Family legacy? Yes, yes, especially now yes, because again…you have three out of four attending the university, and then you know, we're waiting for Antonio,” E. Rivera said.
E. Rivera and A. Rivera said they bleed SHU blue.
“We've been given an opportunity that a lot of people don't often have,” E. Rivera said.
“Thank you, Seton Hall,” A. Rivera added.
Both father and son are leaving a legacy at SHU that they’re proud of.
“It just feels right, because I feel connected. I really do,” E. Rivera said. “I drive in, and I feel like, ‘oh, this is home away from home.”’
Dominique Mercadante interned in the Career Center under Jorge E. Rivera from May to December 2025.
Dominique Mercadante is the Editor-in-Chief of The Setonian. She can be reached at dominique.mercadante@student.shu.edu.
