In the closing decade of the 80s, I set out on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a travel partner. Since my friend was considering starting a postgraduate program in NYC, we had booked a 14-day stopover there on the way to London.
We got to the student accommodation, a big 10-storey building on the UWS known as International House. Setting down our luggage, we went directly to the cafeteria, where we picked up meals, sat down, and began chatting with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an Iraqi man pursuing an engineering degree at an Ivy League institution. He inquired what I did for a living, and I shared that I had newly finished with a scientific background and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He mentioned that there was an electron microscope unit at the institution – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was why he was aware of it. He recommended that I ought to seek a position with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, telling him that I was heading off to Europe and, even more importantly, I did not possess a US visa.
The following day I toured the city, coming back to the dining hall that evening. The Iraqi student came up to me and told me that he had arranged an interview for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Since he had gone to the trouble, I went to the meeting – but straight off informed my host that I was without a work permit, so I was probably wasting her time.
As is common in NYC – a metropolis where opportunities abound – she said: “We'll handle it. What's your start date?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I was employed there for a trio of years. A perk of the job was that I was granted free tuition at Columbia, and I took advantage to finish a graduate degree in global studies.
I never saw that student again and I can't recall his identity, but his selfless gesture transformed my future in so many ways. I would never have had the confidence or self-belief to approach someone at an elite institution and request employment. And, I had long dreamed to pursue education overseas, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that role at the university paved the way for a job in Zurich where I encountered my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have four wonderful sons and daughters. That encounter altered everything. That kind stranger redirected my path in life, and I’m always appreciative.
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