During the closing decade of the 80s, I set out on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a companion. Because my friend was exploring starting a postgraduate program in the Big Apple, we had arranged a 14-day stopover there on the way to London.
We arrived at the postgrad residence, a large 10-storey building on the Upper West Side called International House. Setting down our luggage, we made our way to the dining hall, where we got some food, found a table, and started talking to other diners.
Sitting next to me was an Iraqi man studying engineering at a prestigious New York university. He wanted to know what I my profession was, and I told him that I had newly finished with a science degree and had been working on studies involving microscopic analysis.
He pointed out that there was an research lab at Columbia University – adjacent to the school of engineering, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He suggested that I ought to seek a job with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, saying that I was about to fly to Europe and, more critically, I lacked a US visa.
A day later I went out exploring, returning to the canteen that evening. The Iraqi student approached me and informed me that he had arranged an interview for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Given that he had taken the effort, I went to the meeting – but right away informed my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
As is common in NYC – a place where anything feels possible – she declared: “We'll handle it. What's your start date?” I never got on that flight to London.
I was employed there for three years. A perk of the job was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to complete a master’s of international affairs.
I lost touch with him and I can't recall his full name, but his selfless gesture altered my destiny in numerous aspects. I would never have had the courage or self-belief to reach out at an elite institution and ask for a job. And, I had long dreamed to study abroad, but could never have afforded it without that free tuition.
Critically, that role at the university resulted in a position in Switzerland where I encountered my handsome spouse from France, with whom I currently share a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That kind stranger redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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