Members and alumni of the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program attended a celebration of the newly-named program last Tuesday. During the event, which took place at New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft's house, Tom Brady walked in holding his three-year-old son Benjamin.

Holding Benjamin's shoes, Brady addressed the students, giving them a short, inspirational speech and calling them the "leaders of tomorrow."

Brady also praised Myra Kraft '64, a Brandeis alumna and former trustee who passed away in 2011, calling her a "wonderful woman," and telling the students that they "should be really proud to be associated with her name," according to a BrandeisNOW release from last Wednesday.

Robert Kraft gave five million dollars earlier this year to rename the TYP for his wife.

According to the Brandeis website, the TYP was founded in 1968. The one-year program admits 20 students each year, chosen from about 200 applicants each year, with unique circumstances, ranging from "having to work long hours while attending high school, tak[ing] on family leadership roles in their households, or surviv[ing] a conflict in their native country," according to Program Director Erika Smith in an email to the Justice.

The students take a mixture of regular undergraduate classes and specially designed non-credit courses aimed at introducing them to the rigor needed to succeed at Brandeis.

After Brady spoke to the students in Kraft's living room, Kraft led the group of current TYP scholars and alumni to his patio, according to TYP alumnus Edwin Gonzalez '14, who attended the event. Once outside, Kraft spoke about the work that Myra did throughout her life and at Brandeis and told an anecdote about the day that she proposed to him. University President Frederick Lawrence also spoke, as did TYP alumnus Jermaine Hamilton '14.

Smith said that she was happy for the media attention that the event received. "I am thrilled to see [the TYP scholars] recognized for all of their accomplishments," she wrote. "As an institution, Brandeis ... really sets itself apart from its peer institutions with this level of commitment to access and equity in education."

Gonzalez was similarly full of praise for the TYP. "I think that it is a wonderful experience that should be expanded or at least adopted by other elite universities," he wrote in an email to the Justice.

He also gave an example of a concrete way that the TYP helped him adjust to Brandeis. He wrote, "One of the basic requirements for graduation is the [University Writing Seminar] course. During my transitional year, I took two courses (not for credit) that were structured like a UWS course. In my second MKTYP semester, we focused on writing a lens essay specifically. My writing and editing abilities increased tenfold because of the program. I breezed through my actual UWS course."

A Boston-area native, Gonzalez said that the Kraft's philanthropy goes beyond Brandeis.

"As a senior in high school I was awarded the Kraft Family scholarship which I used to purchase my laptop. That money helped me start off my MKTYP experience on the right foot so I am extremely grateful to them. I love the philanthropic work that Myra always did and I am sad to have never met her," he wrote.

Smith also pointed to the generosity of the Kraft family and the impact they have had on Brandeis.

"It is because of supporters like the Krafts that Brandeis is able have the strong orientation toward social justice that it does," she wrote. 

"The Krafts serve as role models for generosity and selflessness to the students in the program, as well as to many others throughout the Brandeis community," Smith added. "Their dedication to efforts intended to level the playing field for people who show admirable strength of character will reverberate throughout the world for a great many years to come."
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