Ted Koulentes has recently been promoted to be the Sophomore Boys Adviser Chair. However, Koulentes holds as many titles that reflect his love of sports as his academic achievements.
He is the Boys Golf Coach, and the Boys Lacrosse Coach. “I participate in a lot of activities at New Trier because I like working with kids and being involved in different things at the school. I think it’s important to meet lots of different kids and be a part of New Trier,” said Koulentes.
Koulentes played football, wrestling, and volleyball in high school. He even continued to play football at Carthage College his freshman year, but had multiple concussions that ended his career.
After 15 years of service at New Trier in the Special Education Department, Koulentes admits this is not where he saw his future going,
“I was a psychology major at the University of Illinois and finally decided late my senior year that I did not want to just keep doing research, I wanted to work more with people.”
Teaching runs in the Koulentes’ family, however. According to Koulentes, he has an older brother, the Principal at Highland Park High School, who helped inspire him to go into teaching. Not to mention his younger brother, Matthew Koulentes, is also a Special Education teacher at New Trier. “The three of us always had great experiences growing up. We loved high school and our college experience and I think that helped push all three of us into these careers,” said Koulentes.
Koulentes is exuberant about being the new Sophomore Boys Adviser Chair. “I am really excited to be back at the Winnetka campus and reconnect with the teachers and students again,” said Koulentes.
“I love advisery; it was always my favorite part of the day. Being a freshman adviser for 14 years, I would always try to make advisery exciting and as fun as possible. I now love helping advisers work with the kids in their adviseries.”