During the final years of the 1980s, I was embarking on a low-cost journey to the European continent with a travel partner. Because my travel mate was exploring starting a postgraduate program in the Big Apple, we had booked a 14-day stopover there en route to London.
We reached the graduate housing, a big multi-story edifice on the UWS known as International House. After dropping our bags, we went directly to the cafeteria, where we picked up meals, found a table, and began chatting with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an Iraqi man pursuing an engineering degree at an Ivy League institution. He wanted to know what I did, and I explained that I had recently completed my studies with a science degree and had been conducting research using an electron microscope.
He mentioned that there was an electron microscope unit at the institution – close to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I ought to seek a position with them. I dismissed the idea, saying that I was soon departing to Europe and, additionally, I lacked a US visa.
The next day I toured the city, coming back to the dining hall that after dark. The engineering student approached me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Given that he had gone to the trouble, I went to the meeting – but immediately informed my interviewer that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was likely not a suitable candidate.
In typical New York fashion – a metropolis where anything feels possible – she responded: “We'll handle it. When can you start?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I held that position for three years. An advantage of the role was that I was granted no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to complete a master’s of international affairs.
I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his identity, but his selfless gesture altered my destiny in numerous aspects. I would never have had the courage or nerve to approach someone at an elite institution and ask for a job. Moreover, I had always wanted to take classes in another country, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that tuition waiver.
Perhaps most importantly, that role at the university led me to a position in Switzerland where I met my handsome spouse from France, with whom I am raising four wonderful sons and daughters. That encounter altered everything. That benevolent individual set me on a different course in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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