In the final years of the 1980s, I was embarking on a budget travel adventure to Europe with a friend. Since my travel mate was considering pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had planned a 14-day stopover there on the way to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a big multi-story edifice on the Upper West Side known as International House. Setting down our luggage, we headed straight to the cafeteria, where we picked up meals, found a table, and engaged in conversation with other diners.
Beside me was an gentleman from Iraq enrolled in an engineering program at an Ivy League institution. He inquired what I did, and I shared that I had newly finished with a science degree and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He mentioned that there was an microscopy facility at the university – close to the school of engineering, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I ought to seek a job with them. I dismissed the idea, saying that I was about to fly to Europe and, additionally, I lacked a US visa.
A day later I ventured out, returning to the canteen that after dark. The engineering student walked over to me and let me know that he had set up a meeting for me with the leader of the research team at Columbia. Since he had gone to the trouble, I attended the interview – but straight off told my prospective employer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
Reflecting the city's spirit – a place where anything feels possible – she responded: “We can make that happen. How soon can you begin?” I missed my plane to London.
I was employed there for 36 months. One of the benefits was that I was granted no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to finish a postgrad program in international relations.
I lost touch with him and I am unaware of his name, but his remarkable generosity altered my destiny in multiple respects. I would never have had the bravery or self-belief to contact anyone at an Ivy League university and request employment. Moreover, I had consistently hoped to take classes in another country, but lacked the financial means without that free tuition.
Perhaps most importantly, that gig at Columbia led me to a job in Zurich where I got to know my beautiful French husband, with whom I currently share a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That kind stranger changed my trajectory in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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