POPPER!

Remember the name: That’s Popper as in Isaac Popper (B ’24, SLA  ’24), Tulane’s resident Renaissance man! He’s from the Boston area (Medfield, about 45 minutes away). He’s working on his master’s degree in the A. B. Freeman School of Business. He’s a brilliant sports statistics enthusiast who works on ESPN+ broadcasts through his job at Tulane Athletics. He’s also emblematic of today’s Tulane student — bright, curious and engaged in any number of seemingly far-flung fields. Interdisciplinarity is the fancy word for it.

Popper is a campus tour guide and was part of a team of Freeman students who won the inaugural mock NBA Trade Deadline Competition. He analyzes statistics and trends during Tulane and the Pelicans basketball seasons and communicates them to ESPN broadcasters and producers.

He was a data management intern for Tulane Hillel. He graduated with degrees in finance and Jewish Studies and has returned for a master’s degree in business analytics.

So, what’s a Renaissance man? The short answer is that in 15th and 16th century Europe (mainly Italy) there were brilliant cultural, artistic, intellectual and philosophical giants such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. In the 21st century sports arena, that is Isaac Popper. And he’s not alone. When I attended Tulane, students mostly stayed in their lane. English majors took classes in the humanities, biology majors concentrated in the sciences, etc. Not anymore. There is no single lane for a Tulane student, with an increasing number of Renaissance women, and men, having double or even triple majors!

When I asked Popper why he chose Tulane, he did not hesitate. “There were a lot of different reasons. Tulane was the only school that checked off all the boxes. The A. B. Freeman School of Business was a huge reason. New Orleans has both pro and college sports. There’s the great food, the campus was beautiful, and I felt I needed a change of scenery. Also, Tulane is in a large metropolitan city and has a high Jewish enrollment.”

Popper does not have a typical Boston accent such as “Pawk the Cawh in Hahvahd Yahd!” although he is a huge Boston Red Sox fan. As a youngster he watched all the Red Sox games and graded all the players.

Around campus, Isaac has no shortage of nicknames. He’s Pop, Popper, iPopStats. He is an extraordinary and yet, by Tulane standards, ordinary student interested and engaged in so many subjects.

And, like any Tulane student, he loves the local cuisine which was another reason he came to Tulane. His favorites are Nirvana, Shaya, SukhoThai, Vietnamese restaurants, beignets and snowballs.

“People here are super nice,” he said. “On campus, I see five or ten people I know when I’m taking a five-minute walk.”