Pouliopoulos Named Northeast-10 Faculty Mentor of the Year

Jim “Pouli” Pouliopoulos, MBA ’95, founding director of the Professional Sales Program at Bentley and a senior lecturer in the Marketing department, is the 2021 recipient of the Dr. Dave Landers Faculty Mentor of the Year in the Northeast-10 Conference.  

What does such an award mean to Pouliopoulos? “In a word: Everything,” he says. “I love what I do at Bentley. I love working with young adults and helping them launch their careers and their lives. The fact that students nominated me for this award means the world to me.” 

Named after the longtime professor and faculty athletic representative at Saint Michael’s College, the Dr. Dave Landers Faculty Mentor Award recognizes a faculty member from a conference institution who has supported the efforts of student-athletes in achieving their academic goals. 

AVID SUPPORTER 

“Pouli is an avid supporter of the student-athlete experience and can often be seen cheering on our athletes on at home games,” said Catie Noons, Bentley’s athletics compliance and student development coordinator. “The relationships he has with his students, particularly student-athletes, last long after graduation. He makes every effort to foster professional development and is always willing to offer advice. Pouli represents the best of our faculty and is more than deserving of this award." 

A part of Bentley’s marketing faculty since 2002, Pouliopoulos is a believer that athletics is a core part of the college experience. “These students sacrifice a lot to represent the university,” he shares. “I’m happy to support them and work with them so they can learn inside the classroom and pursue their passions outside the classroom.”  

Bentley softball player Melissa Landry wrote in her nomination, “Jim Pouliopoulos, or rather known as ‘Pouli’ across Bentley University’s campus, surely exemplifies the NCAA Division II core values of learning, passion, service, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, and balance. Any student who has had the pleasure to take one of his classes would be the first to recognize that his enthusiastic nature and vivacious personality creates a positive learning environment that keeps students engaged time and time again. 

“Simply put, Pouli is the type of professor that goes the extra mile and utilizes the few minutes before and after class to get to know his students personally. Whether asking about their weekend plans, or even directly talking to his student-athletes about specific stat lines or plays they made in their games earlier this week, he wants to learn more about them as an individual rather than just a student. This fact makes it so that his support is not only seen in the classroom, but rather outside the class and with our extracurriculars as well,” continued Landry. 

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM 

For Pouliopoulos, one of the driving forces behind mentoring athletic students is watching them learn more about themselves outside of the classroom.  

“Most Bentley students are involved in some kind of organization, club or extracurricular activity, but there’s something about student-athletes that’s particularly impressive,” he shares. “They balance their mental focus in the classroom with the hundreds of hours spent practicing on the field, in the pool, on the ice, in the gym, or wherever their field of play happens to be. They have to manage their physical wellbeing and make sure that they rest and recover while keeping up with team projects and studying for exams. They sacrifice parts of their social lives in exchange for spending hours on a bus with teammates and traveling off campus to represent their schools. 

“Ultimately, they have to manage their emotional wellbeing. They deal with the pressures of winning and losing on the field while dealing with highs and lows academically. All of these experiences will serve them well after graduation.”