Gregory Schaper, a long-time computer science professor at Moravian University who is retiring at the end of this semester, grew up poor in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas. Having lost his mother at a young age and with a father who considered himself more a provider than a nurturer, Schaper had nobody to guide him.
Schaper knew the only way out of his situation was attending college, but he couldn’t afford it. A mediocre student in high school, he knew he wouldn’t be able to earn an academic scholarship, and instead worked to earn an athletic one.
He played on the varsity basketball team, becoming skilled enough that a couple of small colleges recruited him. He eventually realized that he was an even better high jumper. By his senior year, Schaper’s best jump – 7’ 3.5” – was higher than any other students in the state of Arkansas, and he was ranked third in the nation for his age group.
Colleges started recruiting Schaper. Fearful of losing an athletic scholarship if he got injured, Schaper enrolled at Arkansas State University (ASU), whose coach promised Schaper that he would get his degree no matter what. In his freshman year, he qualified for the Olympic trials; a year later, his ankle gave out. Keeping his promise, the coach kept Schaper on scholarship. After graduating, Shaper went on to pursue a doctorate in computer science at the University of Central Florida.
It was in grad school that Schaper was first truly exposed to the theory of computer science, and he was hooked.
“I wanted to know how the computer worked from top to bottom, from the time you typed in a program till the time it was running on the computer,” he said.
As a graduate student at the age of 21, Schaper taught his first class at ASU and discovered the best way to learn something was to teach it.
“When you have to teach something, that’s when you bust your ass learning about it, because you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of a class,” Schaper explained.
After graduating, Schaper first worked for the aerospace manufacturing company, McDonnell Douglas, creating helicopter simulations. He liked the work but not the slow pace of industry, particularly when compared to teaching.
“When we’d go to work, the first thing we do is take a break,” he said. He decided to return to the classroom. “Teaching required me to work about three times faster than I had to at McDonnell Douglas.” He started as a professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa, then moved back to Pennsylvania for family, teaching at Kutztown for six years. In 2016, after a year of unemployment, he came across a job advertisement for Moravian University.
“They needed computer organization, theory of computation, and CS I,” Schaper said. “And I’m like, that’s me!” He was hired the same day he was interviewed.
Schaper prides himself on his teaching methods. Anytime students had trouble in his course, they would come to his office and he would chat with them about their hobbies and interests. Eventually, he would find something in their conversation that he could relate to the topic they were having trouble with, helping them understand it.
When he wasn’t teaching, Schaper continued his forty-year research on P equals NP, which is the unsolved mathematical problem asking if every problem with a verifiable solution can be quickly solved.
In a Theory for Computation class he had taken back in college, he was assigned a P = NP problem. He considers it to be the only homework that he couldn’t solve. He has been fascinated by it ever since.
Schaper has greatly enjoyed working at Moravian and wishes that he was not forced to leave due to health issues.
Schaper believes the single most important thing a student can do for themselves is get to know the faculty in their discipline. It’s the letter of recommendation that matters, not the GPA, and so building those connections is far more important than a grade will ever be.
“If you want an education as good as Harvard, as good as Stanford, as good as MIT, you can get it right here, but you’ve got to go get it,” he said. “You’re not going to get it from our standard curriculum. You’ve got to go know your faculty, ask questions, and get involved in projects outside class.”
