During the closing decade of the 80s, I was beginning a backpacking trip to the European continent with a companion. Since my companion was interested in starting a postgraduate program in the Big Apple, we had arranged a fortnight visit there before heading to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a large ten-floor structure on the UWS called International House. After dropping our bags, we went directly to the cafeteria, where we picked up meals, took a seat, and began chatting with other diners.
Beside me was an Iraqi man enrolled in an engineering program at Columbia University. He inquired what I did, and I shared that I had newly finished with a degree in science and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He pointed out that there was an electron microscope unit at the institution – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He suggested that I ought to seek a role with them. I dismissed the idea, saying that I was heading off to Europe and, additionally, I didn’t have a US visa.
The next day I ventured out, returning to the canteen that night. The man from Iraq approached me and let me know that he had arranged an interview for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Because he had gone to the trouble, I attended the interview – but straight off informed my host that I was without a work permit, so I was probably wasting her time.
In typical New York fashion – a city where everything seems achievable – she declared: “We'll handle it. When can you start?” I never got on that flight to London.
I held that position for a trio of years. A perk of the job was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to complete a graduate degree in global studies.
We didn't cross paths after that and I don’t even know his name, but his remarkable generosity altered my destiny in so many ways. I didn't possess the bravery or self-assurance to reach out at an elite institution and seek a position. Additionally, I had long dreamed to take classes in another country, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that educational benefit.
Critically, that job in New York led me to a position in Switzerland where I met my beautiful French husband, with whom I am raising a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That benevolent individual set me on a different course in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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