Profiles

Valya (Kazes) Shapiro ’61 knew English when she arrived from Turkey as a Wien Scholar in the fall of 1959, but she soon discovered that was not enough to be conversant with many of her fellow Brandeis students.

“On my first day, a student in the room next to me in the Castle said, ‘C’mon in! C’mon in!’ There was a group of students talking, and I suddenly realized that I could not understand a word they were saying,” Valya remembered. “I knew English, but the English they spoke was so colloquial. I was petrified.”

There were other moments of discomfort as well. Back in Turkey, students traditionally rose from their seats when the professor entered the room. She found that was not customary in the United States.

“In my first class, the professor walked in and I stood up. I looked around and saw I was the only person standing,” she recalled with a laugh. “I was so embarrassed and humiliated.”

After her initial period of uncertainty, Valya quickly adapted to the differences in language and culture. She grew from a fearful student barely able to express herself into an eloquent spokesperson for the Wien International Scholarship Program and Brandeis, eventually addressing crowds of supporters at fundraising events throughout the country at the invitation of Abram Sachar, the University’s founding president.

“Brandeis and the Wien program gave me the opportunity to be exposed to the best of higher learning through inspiring professors and allowed me to interact with students from all over the world,” Valya said. “My experience at Brandeis opened the world to me.”

She came to Brandeis intending to study English and linguistics, but changed her focus to the theater, particularly directing and writing plays. She has put her love of language and the arts to use in her post-Brandeis life.

After graduation, she taught French at the high school and college level before studying photography. Since 1973, she has worked as an interior designer in the Boston area.

Valya also found her life partner through Brandeis. Classmate Tina Dorn ’61 introduced Valya to her uncle, Robert Shapiro ’52, a member of Brandeis’s first graduating class and the son of one of the University’s founding trustees.

Valya and Robert met on a snowy January night, had their first date in February, and were married in June, six days after her graduation. Sachar, a close friend of the Shapiro family, gave away the bride since Valya’s parents were unable to attend the wedding. The Shapiros have two sons, Bram and Stephen, and four grandchildren.

Valya and Bob have stayed close to the University over the years – literally and figuratively. They live just a few miles from Brandeis and are active members of the campus community. Valya is a Fellow of the University and serves on the board of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, while Bob has been a longtime member of the Board of Trustees. The Shapiros have generously supported a wide variety of Brandeis programs.

The Shapiros grew close to the founders of the Wien program, Lawrence and Mae Wien. Valya and Bob hosted the 30^th anniversary celebration of the Wien program in 1988, shortly before Lawrence died.

“I think he was very proud that the Wien program became everything he hoped it would,” Valya said. “He was a person of great vision, and I know that all of his ‘offspring’ throughout the world have carried his mission to their respective countries of origin. This is our gesture of gratitude to Lawrence Wien.”