Long road pays off for CLA grad

UPS driver Paul Kopacz took advantage of his company’s tuition benefits to work on his history degree over a 10-year span.

By day, Paul Kopacz drives a brown truck, wears a brown uniform, and—safely, quickly and efficiently—delivers dozens of mostly brown packages.

By night? Well, by night, he expands his gray matter, adding red and yellow and orange and magenta, in ways he never thought possible.

“It’s like,” he said, “setting your brain on fire.”

That’s the best way Kopacz, 46, can describe what happens when he leaves his demanding, nine- or 10-hour workday as a UPS driver behind and focuses on how Robert E. Lee helped the South lose the Civil War, how some of the world’s greatest writings focused on the plight of the common man, or how to conjugate a verb in Spanish.

For the past 10 years, Kopacz, a Churchville resident who has driven for UPS for two decades, has spent his nights pursuing an undergraduate degree in history from the College of Liberal Arts, taking all of his courses at the University’s Ambler Campus.

Kopacz, who took one or two courses each semester, will celebrate the culmination of his efforts when he receives his degree, summa cum laude, at today’s Commencement ceremony. He’ll leave behind his brown uniform and take the stage in a black cap and gown and a white hood and tassel to accept his diploma, the proud owner of a degree—and a near-perfect 3.98 grade point average—that took him four tries to complete.

Kopacz said he lacked focus in his earlier attempts to earn a college degree. But something changed after he became a father and his children, Krystle and Eric, began attending school.

“Before, I wasn’t really motivated in school to impress my parents or my peers,” said Kopacz, a 1975 graduate of Council Rock High School, which his wife, Lynn, also attended. “I went back in 1995. It’s because I had kids. My daughter was in fifth grade and my son was in third grade. I wanted to be a role model to them. I thought I’d give it one more shot.”

Kopacz, who has driven the Langhorne route for UPS for nine years, was aided by his company’s tuition reimbursement program, which paid for his pursuit of his degree. Last year, Krystle, now a freshman communications major at Pennsylvania State University, received the highly competitive, four-year Casey Scholarship from UPS.

“UPS has been nothing but enthusiastic about this. The company has helped me and my family,” he said. “At work, most of the drivers would say, ‘Wow. I can’t believe you’re going to school.’ They’re some of the most down-to-earth, hard-working people you’ll ever meet. And I’m proud to be one of them.”

Still, Kopacz wanted to explore the world of academia and expand his mind, whether that meant struggling through an Intellectual Heritage (IH) class—“I was really proud I passed that class,” he said—or learning how to write compelling research papers. He did so with the intention of giving it his best effort. That comes, he said, from his work ethic at UPS and his desire to demonstrate to his children that education is important.

“If I went in and did it half-way and got ‘C’s, how can I ask my daughter to get ‘A’s?” said Kopacz, who notes that his son, a junior at Council Rock, is college-bound and boasts PSAT scores in the 95th percentile.

“At UPS, they demand production and precision,” he continued. “You have to be on top of everything. If I was going to do this, I was going to give 100 percent to it.”

A pre-med major years ago, Kopacz, who tapes class lectures and listens to them in his car on the way to and from work, decided to pursue a history degree because he always had an interest in the subject. But, he said, he probably learned just as much in the University’s core requirements as he did in his major.

“I’ve used the Spanish I learned on my route,” he said. “And my first IH class changed my whole outlook on history. It was a great class to take early on.”

Kopacz, who this year received the Kaner Award, presented to the Ambler student with the highest history GPA, is seriously considering attending graduate school on Temple’s Main Campus now that he’s finished his undergraduate degree.

While he was able to study under—and take his capstone class with—nationally prominent presidential scholar James Hilty, the coordinator of history at Ambler, there are many other faculty members he’d like to learn from, he said.

Not one to sit still, he’s thinking further down the road, as well, contemplating what he’ll do after he delivers his last package from truck number 655152 out of the Willow Grove Division.

“After retirement, I’m thinking about teaching history or maybe working for a state park,” he said.

But even if he doesn’t work in history, his path to his bachelor’s degree has absolutely been worth it, said Kopacz, a Temple President’s Scholar who in his junior year won the Wachman Award, given to the student in the history program who has the highest GPA.

“I kept all of my books,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell any of them. While I was taking classes, I spent quality time with my kids. I worked on my house. I accomplished the things I needed to accomplish.

“But this helps fulfill me,” Kopacz added. “In a lot of ways, it keeps you young. I’ve learned about life in my classes.” — Barbara Baals