During the closing decade of the 80s, I was beginning a backpacking trip to Europe with a companion. Because my travel mate was considering enrolling in graduate studies in NYC, we had booked a 14-day stopover there before heading to London.
We reached the graduate housing, a sizeable 10-storey building on the UWS named International House. Once we unpacked, we made our way to the dining hall, where we got some food, sat down, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Adjacent to my seat was an Iraqi man pursuing an engineering degree at an Ivy League institution. He asked me what I did, and I told him that I had just graduated with a degree in science and had been conducting research involving microscopic analysis.
He mentioned that there was an microscopy facility at the university – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was how he knew about it. He suggested that I should apply for a job with them. I laughed it off, telling him that I was about to fly to Europe and, more critically, I lacked a US visa.
The following day I toured the city, returning to the canteen that evening. The engineering student walked over to me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Since he had taken the effort, I attended the interview – but straight off told my host that I didn’t have a visa, so I was unable to accept the role.
In typical New York fashion – a metropolis where everything seems achievable – she said: “That can be arranged. When can you start?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I held that position for three years. An advantage of the role was that I also received free tuition at Columbia, and I took advantage to complete a master’s of international affairs.
I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his name, but his remarkable generosity altered my destiny in so many ways. I lacked the courage or self-belief to reach out at an Ivy League university and ask for a job. Moreover, I had always wanted to study abroad, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that free tuition.
What's more, that job in New York resulted in a position in Switzerland where I met my beautiful French husband, with whom I am raising a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That helpful person set me on a different course in life, and I’m forever grateful.
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