You just never know whom you might pick up hitchhiking – a Brandeis classmate, a fellow returning Study Abroad student, maybe even a potential spouse. How about all three in a single trip?

That’s just what happened in the fall of 1979 when Susan Cohen ’80 offered a ride to Michael Klein ’80. As was customary at Brandeis at the time, Klein was waiting at the information booth at the entrance to campus looking for a ride to his apartment in Waltham when Cohen drove up.

Cohen and Klein quickly discovered they had much in common. In addition to being seniors and living off-campus, they had both recently returned to Brandeis after spending time studying overseas. Anxious to share their Study Abroad experiences, they ended up collaborating on a handbook that dispensed practical advice for students considering foreign study.

“We both had formative experiences studying abroad and wanted to share our insight with other people,” Klein said. “We each wrote a chapter for a guidebook and spent a lot of time together.”

Klein and Cohen, who were married in 1982, have been consistent donors to Brandeis for more than 20 years. They recently made their largest gift to the University in support of student scholarships, Brandeis’s top fundraising priority.

“On both a personal and professional level, our lives have been shaped by Brandeis,” Klein said. “We’re fortunate to be in a position to help.”

“We liked the idea that we could help a student who might not otherwise have been able to attend Brandeis,” Cohen said. “Scholarships create a pathway where one may not have existed before.”

Klein came to Brandeis with the intention of majoring in English, but changed his academic course after taking an economics class with Barney Schwalberg. “Professor Schwalberg was just a wonderful teacher and got me interested in economics,” Klein explained. “He made economics really resonate for me. It just made sense the way he taught it.”

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Klein earned his doctorate at Columbia and now serves as the William L. Clayton Professor of International Economic Affairs at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he has taught since 1991. Klein, who recently published his third book on international macroeconomics, always scores highly on teaching evaluations. He credits Schwalberg for his ability to establish a rapport with students.

“I learned the value of using humor in the classroom from him,” Klein said. “Humor lightens the mood and gets students to relax and perform well.”

Cohen transferred to Brandeis from Bates, and found the diverse, culturally rich atmosphere she was seeking. She quickly embraced the University’s foundational ideal of social justice and became an activist.

“The campus was full of very committed people who cared about things – from the J.P. Stevens textile mill protests to apartheid -- and wanted to make changes,” she said. “It was an exciting place to be.”

A Latin American and Spanish literature major, Cohen used her proficiency in Spanish to land a job with an immigration lawyer after graduation, not knowing that it would become her life’s work. She graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and has been with Mintz Levin in Boston since 1985. She founded the firm’s immigration law department.

“Working as an immigration attorney has proven to be a very satisfying way to help people,” Cohen said.

A songwriter who has played the guitar since she was 15, Cohen recently released her debut CD, “In Time.” Proceeds benefit the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR) of Boston, which matches up PAIR clients with attorneys who represent them on a pro bono basis.