During the late 1980s, I was beginning a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a friend. Since my friend was considering pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had arranged a two-week stay there on the way to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a large ten-floor structure on the Manhattan's Upper West Side named International House. After dropping our bags, we made our way to the dining hall, where we grabbed food, sat down, and started talking to people eating there.
Adjacent to my seat was an gentleman from Iraq enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He asked me what I did, and I explained that I had just graduated with a degree in science and had been performing experiments using an electron microscope.
He pointed out that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – close to the engineering department, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He recommended that I ought to seek a job with them. I dismissed the idea, explaining that I was about to fly to Europe and, even more importantly, I lacked a US visa.
The next day I went out exploring, coming back to the dining hall that after dark. The man from Iraq walked over 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 made the arrangement, I went to the meeting – but straight off informed my interviewer that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
Reflecting the city's spirit – a place where everything seems achievable – she declared: “We can make that happen. How soon can you begin?” I missed my plane to London.
I worked there for 36 months. A perk of the job was that I got complimentary education at Columbia, and I took advantage to earn a master’s of international affairs.
I never saw that student again and I can't recall his identity, but his incredible act of kindness altered my destiny in numerous aspects. I lacked the confidence or self-assurance to approach someone at an elite institution and ask for a job. Moreover, I had consistently hoped to study abroad, but lacked the financial means without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that gig at Columbia paved the way for a role in Europe where I met my wonderful partner, with whom I now have a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That kind stranger redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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