During the final years of the 1980s, I set out on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a travel partner. Since my travel mate was exploring pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had booked a two-week stay there before heading to London.
We reached the graduate housing, a big ten-floor structure on the Upper West Side named International House. After dropping our bags, we made our way to the dining hall, where we got some food, took a seat, and started talking to fellow residents.
Beside me was an individual of Iraqi origin studying engineering at Columbia University. He wanted to know what I did for a living, and I told him that I had just graduated with a scientific background and had been working on studies involving microscopic analysis.
He mentioned that there was an research lab at Columbia University – close to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He recommended that I consider applying for a position with them. I laughed it off, saying that I was about to fly to Europe and, even more importantly, I lacked a US visa.
The following day I went out exploring, going back to the cafeteria that after dark. The man from Iraq walked over to 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 made the arrangement, I showed up for the discussion – but straight off informed my interviewer that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was unable to accept the role.
In typical New York fashion – a place where opportunities abound – she declared: “We'll handle it. When can you start?” I never got on that flight to London.
I was employed there for a trio of years. An advantage of the role was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to finish a postgrad program in international relations.
I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his full name, but his selfless gesture transformed my future in so many ways. I lacked the courage or self-assurance to reach out at an elite institution and request employment. Moreover, I had long dreamed to study abroad, but lacked the financial means without that educational benefit.
What's more, that job in New York led me to a role in Europe where I got to know my beautiful French husband, with whom I currently share a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That benevolent individual set me on a different course in life, and I’m forever grateful.
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