{"id":3527,"date":"2021-11-09T18:56:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T18:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2025-03-27T15:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T19:39:05","slug":"soul-of-a-teacher-manubhai-mike-karia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/09\/soul-of-a-teacher-manubhai-mike-karia\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul of a Teacher: Manubhai (Mike) Karia"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e\"]{display:block;padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-md, 2rem);text-align:center;font-size:var(--global-kb-font-size-sm, 0.9rem);font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<span class=\"kt-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e wu-subheading wp-block-kadence-advancedheading has-kb-palette-14-color has-text-color\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading3527_31a064-0e\">Manubhai (Mike) Karia | College of Business since 1980<\/span>\n\n\n<style>.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3527_074a18-df{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3527_074a18-df > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3527_074a18-df dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<p>Fifty-one years ago, Mike Karia\u2019s flight from India landed at Kennedy Airport on the day after a snowstorm. \u201cI was coming from a place where it was 95 or 100 degrees every day,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThere was snow in the Himalayas, but now I was walking on snow.\u201d He survived the winter and a long job search to find accounting work in New York and Newark, New Jersey. In 1974, he was offered the opportunity to become finance director for the city of Dover, Delaware, a position he retired from in 2001. \u201cThat was the happiest journey of my life,\u201d he says. He\u2019s still teaching managerial accounting and financial management to WilmU\u2019s MBA students in Dover and Georgetown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide wu-blockquote-row is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote wu-blockquote-simple is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cTeaching is in my blood. It is embedded in me. It has been my temple since 1980. I bow down my head and say, \u2018Thank you, God.\u2019 Teaching gives my soul joy and peace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<cite>\u2014 Mike Karia<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>In the bag.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cI saw a newspaper ad seeking an instructor for an MBA accounting class at Wilmington College. I taught business college in India for seven years, in English and Gujarati, and had written three graduate textbooks for the Indian market, but I had never taught in the U.S. I interviewed with Dr. Audrey K. Doberstein. I told her, \u2018I wrote the book on management accounting.\u2019 I took the book out of a small plastic bag from a trip to the Acme and showed it to her, but it was written in Gujarati. She asked, \u2018How do I know this is you? How do I know I can trust you?\u2019 I said, \u2018Look into my eyes. If you think I\u2019m lying, don\u2019t hire me. But if you think I\u2019m not, give me the chance to teach.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Doing the math.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cThe pages of a textbook are full of figures and formulas. The challenge and the joy of teaching is helping students unlock the mystery of those figures and formulas, to make them useful in real life. I took examples from my work with the mayor and the city manager, so they knew I was not talking abstractly. I said, \u2018When you go home today, when you go to work at nine o\u2019clock, look around you, look at the budgets they give you. See how they add up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Seven minutes to success.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cBefore we were all online, I\u2019d start every class with seven minutes of meditation. I call it \u2018quieting the mind.\u2019 Because students were coming from work and complications and stop lights and things, and it is all so stressful. I\u2019d turn down the lights, show them how to sit, show them how to hold their hands. We\u2019d continue this practice for each of the seven classes in the block. I hope this practice has helped students to learn how to achieve balance. Because if you\u2019re a better person, you will be a better MBA, and you will be more effective at your desk in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>What is success?<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cI\u2019m not expecting everyone to be a 4.0 student. I couldn\u2019t be happier than to see a 3.2 student who has become a better person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2014 David Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manubhai (Mike) Karia | College of Business since 1980 Fifty-one years ago, Mike Karia\u2019s flight from India landed at Kennedy Airport on the day after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[71,615,626],"class_list":["post-3527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-college-of-business","tag-faculty-feature","tag-magazine-fall-2021"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":71,"label":"College of Business"},{"value":615,"label":"Faculty Feature"},{"value":626,"label":"Magazine Fall 2021"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Soul-of-a-Teacher-Manubhai-Mike-Karia-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":71,"name":"College of Business","slug":"college-of-business","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":628,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":92,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":615,"name":"Faculty Feature","slug":"faculty-feature","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1172,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":626,"name":"Magazine Fall 2021","slug":"magazine-fall-2021","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1183,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3527"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17510,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions\/17510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}