During the final years of the 1980s, I set out on a budget travel adventure to Europe with a travel partner. Since my friend was interested in pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had booked a 14-day stopover there en route to London.
We reached the graduate housing, a sizeable 10-storey building on the UWS called International House. After dropping our bags, we headed straight to the cafeteria, where we got some food, took a seat, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an gentleman from Iraq pursuing an engineering degree at a prestigious New York university. He wanted to know what I did, and I shared that I had newly finished with a science degree and had been working on studies with electron microscopy.
He noted that there was an electron microscope unit at the institution – adjacent to the school of engineering, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He recommended that I consider applying for a job with them. I dismissed the idea, telling him that I was heading off to Europe and, additionally, I didn’t have a US visa.
A day later I went out exploring, returning to the canteen that after dark. The engineering student approached me and told me that he had arranged an interview for me with the leader of the research team at Columbia. Given that he had taken the effort, I showed up for the discussion – but right away told my host that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
In typical New York fashion – a city where everything seems achievable – she declared: “That can be arranged. How soon can you begin?” I never got on that flight to London.
I worked there for a trio of years. A perk of the job was that I also received complimentary education at Columbia, and I seized the chance to earn a postgrad program in international relations.
I never saw that student again and I can't recall his identity, but his remarkable generosity changed my life in numerous aspects. I would never have had the confidence or nerve to contact anyone at an prestigious college 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.
Critically, that gig at Columbia paved the way for a position in Switzerland where I met my beautiful French husband, with whom I currently share a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That helpful person set me on a different course in life, and I’m always appreciative.
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