In the final years of the 1980s, I set out on a low-cost journey to Europe with a friend. Since my travel mate was interested in starting a postgraduate program in New York, we had arranged a two-week stay there en route to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a sizeable multi-story edifice on the UWS called International House. Once we unpacked, we went directly to the canteen, where we got some food, found a table, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Beside me was an gentleman from Iraq enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I did for a living, and I told him that I had recently completed my studies with a science degree and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He pointed out that there was an research lab 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, explaining that I was soon departing to Europe and, even more importantly, I lacked a US visa.
A day later I toured the city, going back to the cafeteria that after dark. The engineering student came up to me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Since he had gone to the trouble, I went to the meeting – but immediately told my host that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
As is common in NYC – a city where everything seems achievable – she declared: “We can make that happen. What's your start date?” I never got on that flight to London.
I worked there for a trio of years. One of the benefits was that I got no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to finish a graduate degree in global studies.
I never saw that student again and I can't recall his full name, but his incredible act of kindness changed my life in so many ways. I lacked the courage or self-assurance to reach out at an elite institution and request employment. Additionally, I had long dreamed to study abroad, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that educational benefit.
What's more, that role at the university paved the way for a role in Europe where I got to know my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That kind stranger set me on a different course in life, and I’m forever grateful.
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