During the final years of the 1980s, I set out on a low-cost journey to Europe with a travel partner. Since my travel mate was considering enrolling in graduate studies in NYC, we had planned a 14-day stopover there en route to London.
We arrived at the student accommodation, a sizeable 10-storey building on the Upper West Side called International House. Once we unpacked, we headed straight to the canteen, where we got some food, found a table, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Beside me was an Iraqi man studying engineering at an Ivy League institution. He asked me what I did for a living, and I told him that I had just graduated with a scientific background and had been performing experiments with electron microscopy.
He pointed out that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – adjacent 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 laughed it off, telling him that I was soon departing to Europe and, more critically, I didn’t have a US visa.
A day later I toured the city, going back to the cafeteria that night. The Iraqi student walked over to me and told me that he had organized a discussion for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Given that he had gone to the trouble, I showed up for the discussion – but immediately explained to my interviewer that I didn’t have a 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. What's your start date?” I never got on that flight to London.
I held that position for 36 months. A perk of the job was that I got no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to complete a graduate degree in global studies.
I lost touch with him and I can't recall his identity, but his selfless gesture altered my destiny in so many ways. I lacked the courage or self-belief to approach someone at an elite institution and seek a position. Additionally, I had consistently hoped to study abroad, but could never have afforded it without that educational benefit.
What's more, that role at the university led me to a role in Europe where I got to know 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 forever grateful.
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