Most people who hold a cup of tea and say, “I fancy” don’t also say that while flying search and rescue missions and detecting crimes.

 Most people don’t respond, “Thank you for the experience” when subjected to a prank. Particularly, when that prank is a noise device taped underside their chair, sounding a questionable mix of “frog or fart” each time a colleague pressed its button.

 And most people don’t conclude that the most memorable moment of forty years at their workplace was celebrating the life of another colleague after he passed, while continuing to celebrate that life and his story when telling their very own.

Dr. Janet Shapiro, director of Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS), is not most people. This advocate for disabled students retires from City College at the end of this spring semester with many honors, relationships and footprints after pushing and managing the DSPS program to its fully integrated, well-reputed self, as the campus knows it and her today.

“She has forwarded and raised the level of awareness of disability, in the way people learn and are responsive,” said Steve Conti, a DSPS counselor. “You need to feel support, but be held to the highest standards at all times and Janet does that.”

“Henry [Reed] and I used to say how much we respected her because she never, ever, ever ran away from a hard problem. Some people delegate the hard ones to others. She has courage. She plans, she thinks and I’m really impressed by that.”

Dedication to helping others’ challenges, root back to her 20s, when Shapiro taught English in Uganda, Africa, through the British Peace Corps. And again, when she taught in Kingston, Jamaica.

“I was in a double culture shock being in a third world country and meeting Americans for the first time,” said the ash-blonde, England-native. “Actually, it was more of a culture shock meeting Americans.”

Over her two-year stay, she met her American husband, Harvey, practiced humanitarian efforts and learned to never hang clothes on a line without finding every-other-one stolen.

“They assumed we all shared our clothes with so many out in sight,” she said.

“Sure enough, two weeks later, the girl in the front (of class) was wearing my nightdress, backwards with the buttons down the front,” Shapiro said. “It was one of my first cultural lessons…why people learn so differently. That’s when I first became interested that people have disabilities, and different ways of learning.”

This opportunity to make a difference in education drove her and her husband across the country from Philadelphia to Santa Barbara and eventually, to the City College system.

“I love the CC system. I love what it stands for. When I arrived it really was the opportunity for people to have a second chance…to come back,” Shapiro said. “I stepped in for a temporary position and never left.”

The term disability has signified more of a hurdle than handicap over her years, she explained. “If you separate the ‘dis’ from the ‘ability,’ it’s about the barriers we have in our society. The barriers we set up that stand in the way of people being able to demonstrate their true ability.

“She has helped me to not be shy,” said Brandy Toste, an Early Childhood Development student. “To be out there and talk…to use services more and know these accommodations. I don’t think she could ever be replaced. She’s very good at fighting for our rights.”

“She fights for us,” said Stephanie Cissell, an Administration of Justice student. “She’s very motivated, despite our challenges. I’ll miss her friendly face and her encouragement.”

“She has a really personal touch with the students,” said Robin Carr, a DSPS tutor. “She’s really gracious. Everyday, when we leave she always thanks each of us.”

The bond—that 20 to 30 years of building relationships creates—is what Shapiro honors for her department’s success. “When you build relationships, you build trust,” she said. “I’m a Platinum Rulist. Do unto others as they would want done unto them. It means you have to wait and listen.”

Though “child free,” Shapiro said her role as an advocate nurtures such relationships. “If you stay in a job that you love without realizing it, you become an expert and suddenly you are a mentor.”

“I’ll miss the brainstorming—the spontaneous brainstorming with very good people on a daily basis,” she said.

And the community and the campus, particularly the sacred Chumash site, she added. “The spiritual vortex,” where she and the department gathered for an hour of silence in honor of their beloved friend, Henry Reed, a DSPS counselor who passed earlier this year. “I’ll miss it. It was always a special place for me.

“I suppose you say I can come back, but I think I’ll stay away for the first two years so people can build relationships,” Shapiro said.

“[Retiring] feels like I felt at 20 or 21. The whole world is in front of you. There are so many options…Oh, I’m excited.”

Her hopes are for the program to continue to move forward, despite budget crises. The crisis to which she points one motto by Dante (1265-1321), “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”