Professor Kevin excitingly showing his Public speaking and teaching skills in front of a beautiful screen in coLab

(Photo by: Khadeeja Saleem)

Imagine this: you start your college career as a linebacker and end up at the University of Arkansas for graduate school after your friend told you to apply, and one day you end up in England, studying at the oldest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford University. Well, for 18-year-old Kevin Coupe, whose mindset was just to go to college to knock some heads, studying at Oxford became the best decision he ever made in his life.

Coupe is a communications professor here at JCCC, and made the decision to study communications in those early days of college.

“I did pretty good in my speech class. I liked my professor so, I mean, it was pretty harmless, and I went with it because I didn’t know that much about the discipline. It was fairly new, you know, when I was really kind of starting out,” Coupe said. “When I got into graduate school, and one of my mentors, one of my professors, he kind of instilled this notion of freedom of speech. [So] I really kind of got into the whole freedom aspect of it.”

This is what led the “knucklehead lineman” to continue his studies at one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

In graduate school, Coupe’s mentor and professor was offering a summer seminar in Oxford, and Coupe took the opportunity.

“I actually did it through the study abroad program at [the] University of Arkansas, and it was through the Fulbright Institute,” Coupe said. “So I studied history and philosophy of freedom of speech–and Oxford, England is where freedom of speech began in the first place.”

Coupe felt like he was an experienced traveler after visiting Europe three years before, so he began his trek to Oxford in Rome.

“And, you know, this time when I went through there, I was really roughing it. I had my whole life on my back [while] staying in hostels and campgrounds,” Coupe said. “Ironically enough, I ran into my professor in Rome at the Spanish Steps. I mean, it’s like, this is Europe, you know, and I run into the guy that is going to be teaching my class. How strange was that? It was great.”

Through his travels, Coupe caught the travel bug and discovered a new side of education.

“[I discovered] the adventure side of education, being able to pursue your interest and travel to those places and see it firsthand,” Coupe said. “I really took to that adventure side of academia.”

Coupe is in his 34th year and is hoping to continue teaching for many more. He has taught at many universities, including Arkansas, KCK, Park, Rockhurst and many others as a traveling professor.

“Now I’m kind of winding down. I expect myself to be teaching for probably about 10 more years. So I’m still here, I wanna stay here. But I’ve been at Longview now, on the side,” Coupe said. “I’m very much a traveling professor, whether it’s abroad or if it’s just within the city, driving to all these classes.”

Chair and Professor of Communication Studies Terri Easley-Giraldo said that it is amazing to work alongside Coupe. She explained that he brings a positive and collaborative energy to every interaction and has a natural ability to connect with everyone.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have someone as passionate as Kevin in our department. There’s a reason his classes are consistently among the first to fill—his genuine love for teaching and his strong commitment to helping his students succeed are evident in everything he does,” Easley-Giraldo said.

According to Easley-Giraldo, Coupe has made meaningful contributions to the school community through his excellence in the classroom and the lasting connections that he is able to create with students.

“He is an outstanding professor, and students consistently speak highly of their experiences in his courses,” Easley-Giraldo said. “In fact, when I’m out in the community and mention that I teach Communication Studies at JCCC, I often hear people say, ‘Oh, I had public speaking with Professor Coupe—he was amazing.’”

Outside of the classroom, Easley-Giraldo described his personality as truly infectious and a joy to be around.

“He brings warmth, energy and genuine interest into every interaction, making conversations with him both engaging and memorable. He’s the kind of person you could easily talk with for hours,” Easley-Giraldo said.

Coupe’s favorite part about teaching is being able to help build students’ confidence. He confessed that he knows that his class is a dreaded class, but he tries to make people feel comfortable in his classroom.

“It’s not until the very end of the semester, and even on one of my final exam questions, it’s a subjective answer. And this is where people usually express that they feel more confident at the end of semester,” Coupe said. “And so, I really think that so many young people need to feel some confidence and feel like they can speak out; or if they feel strongly about something, that they can stand up and say something.”

The most rewarding part of teaching for Coupe is finding those little gems, like when a student writes a thank you note for changing their life or asks him for a recommendation letter.

“You know, I call all my ex-students Coupe’s kids,” Coupe said. “And, you know, I’ll see some of my students from time to time. You have relationships with them sometimes, it’s like friendships, or you might see them at a concert or something like that, and they’ll feel compelled to come up and talk to me.”

Coupe has a motto that he uses as his advice for students: “get up, show up, keep up.”

“You know, you gotta get up, you gotta show up, you gotta keep up. If you do that, that’s how you can pass school,” Coupe said. “It’s how you can make it through, or you go on, you get a job in the real world. That’s how you keep your job: you get up, you show up, you keep up. So it’s really good advice, actually.”

The reason that Coupe has stuck with academia so long is because of the freedom aspect. He has never gotten away from that.

“I’m very interested in mystical meditation, and so I pursue that, and I pursue music, and I study things on my own,” Coupe said. “And so it’s still like, being a lifelong learner, just like how you tell everyone to be. I subscribe to that.”