During the closing decade of the 80s, I was beginning a budget travel adventure to Europe with a travel partner. Because my friend was exploring starting a postgraduate program in the Big Apple, we had arranged a 14-day stopover there en route to London.
We arrived at the graduate housing, a big ten-floor structure on the UWS named International House. Setting down our luggage, we made our way to the dining hall, where we got some food, found a table, and started talking to people eating there.
Beside me was an gentleman from Iraq studying engineering at an Ivy League institution. He wanted to know what I my profession was, and I told him that I had just graduated with a degree in science and had been conducting research using an electron microscope.
He noted that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – adjacent to the engineering faculty, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He proposed that I ought to seek a job with them. I laughed it off, saying that I was heading off to Europe and, additionally, I did not possess a US visa.
A day later I went out exploring, going back to the cafeteria that after dark. The engineering student walked over to me and let me know that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Since he had made the arrangement, I attended the interview – but immediately told my interviewer that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was unable to accept the role.
In typical New York fashion – a place where anything feels possible – she responded: “That can be arranged. How soon can you begin?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I held that position for three years. A perk of the job was that I was granted no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to complete a postgrad program in international relations.
I never saw that student again and I am unaware of his full name, but his selfless gesture altered my destiny in so many ways. I would never have had the bravery or self-assurance to contact anyone at an Ivy League university and request employment. And, I had always wanted to pursue education overseas, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that free tuition.
Perhaps most importantly, that role at the university resulted in a job in Zurich where I encountered my wonderful partner, with whom I now have a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That kind stranger changed my trajectory in life, and I’m forever grateful.
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