In the final years of the 1980s, I was beginning a budget travel adventure to Europe with a companion. Since my friend was exploring enrolling in graduate studies in NYC, we had planned a fortnight visit there en route to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a large ten-floor structure on the Manhattan's Upper West Side called International House. After dropping our bags, we went directly to the dining hall, where we got some food, sat down, and started talking to people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an Iraqi man studying engineering at Columbia University. He asked me what I did, and I explained that I had recently completed my studies with a scientific background and had been working on studies with electron microscopy.
He noted that there was an microscopy facility at the university – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I ought to seek a job with them. I dismissed the idea, telling him that I was soon departing to Europe and, additionally, I did not possess a US visa.
A day later I ventured out, coming back to the dining hall that after dark. The Iraqi student walked over to me and let me know that he had arranged an interview for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Because he had gone to the trouble, I went to the meeting – but straight off informed my prospective employer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
In typical New York fashion – a metropolis where anything feels possible – she responded: “We can make that happen. How soon can you begin?” I never got on that flight to London.
I worked there for 36 months. A perk of the job was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to finish a graduate degree in global studies.
I lost touch with him and I don’t even know his name, but his selfless gesture transformed my future in multiple respects. I lacked the bravery or self-assurance to reach out at an elite institution and seek a position. And, I had long dreamed to study abroad, but could never have afforded it without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that job in New York resulted in a job in Zurich where I got to know my beautiful French husband, with whom I am raising four wonderful sons and daughters. This was a pivotal life event. That helpful person set me on a different course in life, and I’m forever grateful.
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