From his early days as a junior in high school, Moraine Valley business professor John Karopulos always had a passion for math. Numbers spoke to him, and he spoke their language right back.
“We’re halfway through the year, John, and you’re getting the highest grade in the class. When I grade your tests, there’s not a single mistake. I feel you could even teach this class yourself,” Mrs. Shall, Karopulos’s junior year math teacher told him.
Karopulos’s passion and great understanding for math led him into the business field. He started by pursuing his dream of owning his own business, and he opened a food and liquor store that he maintained for about 15 years. Although Karopulos succeeded with his business, he was unsatisfied with his work-life balance.
“The truth is, starting off from scratch was very difficult,” he said. “You’re responsible for everything. I mean everything. A-Z in that store. I was working seven days a week. I didn’t take vacations or time off. After 15 years, it was time, I couldn’t do this anymore. I wasn’t going to lose my life to this business.”
The store was only a stepping stone for Karopulos as he continued to explore further into the business world. After selling his store, he applied for multiple different jobs and was eager to land any position he could. Shortly after, Karopulos was hired at a financial institution called Northern Trust.
“I really enjoyed my time with Northern Trust,” he said. “They gave me so much experience, and most importantly, knowledge. With this company, it wasn’t just about the money anymore, it was about seeing just how much information I could learn.”
In Karopulos’s 20 years with the company, he has had the position of a senior securities analyst, senior financial analyst, senior analyst for fees and billing, and lastly, senior account officer.
Karopulos recalls the experience that really made him consider teaching: “We were planning to open an office in Bangalore, India, and they sent people from India to our office in Chicago to train them. They told me I was going to train them.”
The employees Karopulos had to train did speak English, but the concepts were completely foreign to them. The experience helped form his philosophy for teaching people new things.
“You have to understand how they are interpreting the concepts being taught,” he said. “This is so important when teaching people things because if you don’t know how they’re interpreting what you are teaching, you won’t know how to help them better their understanding.”
After Karopulos’s success with training the new employees, he realized just how rewarding it felt to be able to help people understand concepts.
“Even I can make a difference,” he said. “People come in and don’t know anything, I teach them and they come out knowing stuff. That’s a really nice feeling.”
All of Karopulos’s experience with training employees, plus the warm feeling that training and teaching gave him, led him to the idea of teaching students. While he was still employed with Northern Trust, Karopulos decided to go back for his master’s degree at Keller School of Management with the motivation of teaching in a college.
At Moraine Valley, he teaches BUS 120-Business Mathematics, which covers practical topics such as sales and property taxes, interest on credit card payments, payroll, and many other basic math skills that will be necessary for the future.
“I got the job at Moraine in 2003 as an evening professor,” he said. “While I was doing that, I was working downtown still and heard that Robert Morris University was hiring for evening teachers. So I went and I applied. Sure enough, they liked my experience and I was hired.”
In addition to teaching at both schools, Karopulos still worked full time downtown with Northern Trust. Yet he managed to add more to his agenda.
“Two years after starting at Robert Morris, I read that the University of Phoenix, which was an online-only university at the time, was going to be opening an on-campus school,” he said. “So I walked in and talked to the dean and I applied to teach there as well.
“I really just wanted all the experience I could get teaching at colleges, that’s why I did it.”
When Karopulos stopped working at Northern Trust, he also decided to give up teaching downtown. He stopped because his busy schedule was interfering with his personal hobbies and interests.
Karopulos decided to continue working at Moraine Valley, but he couldn’t leave it there. He also works Monday through Friday at a supply and food distribution company called Edward Don in Woodridge. And so the cycle restarts as Karopulos learns everything he can in this job. His hectic agenda means he is never bored.
“I really enjoy coming to Moraine Valley,” he said. “I enjoy engaging with the students and meeting new people.”
Student Sophia Khalil, who is currently taking BUS-120 with Karopulos, enjoys her time in class with Karopulos.
“He’s a very fair professor,” Khalil said. “He breaks every lesson down, making sure we all understand. John is also very sweet and positive. As an evening teacher, he’s not grumpy. He’s very, very sweet.”
For John Karopulos, working is about more than just the money. Karopulos has lived multiple different lives – each containing knowledge and experience to take into the next one. He wishes the same for his students.
“I hope whatever my students do in life, they have the passion, the energy, the commitment, and really want to do well. It’s more than just making a living. You have to want the experience of learning.”
Velocity 
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