In the late 1980s, I was embarking on a low-cost journey to the European continent with a friend. Because my friend was interested in starting a postgraduate program in New York, we had booked a fortnight visit there before heading to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a big 10-storey building on the UWS called International House. Setting down our luggage, we went directly to the canteen, where we grabbed food, sat down, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an Iraqi man enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He wanted to know what I my profession was, and I explained that I had recently completed my studies with a degree in science and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He mentioned that there was an electron microscope unit at the university – close to the school of engineering, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He recommended that I ought to seek a job with them. I laughed it off, explaining that I was soon departing to Europe and, more critically, I did not possess a US visa.
A day later I toured the city, returning to the canteen that night. The engineering student approached me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the leader of the research team at Columbia. Because he had taken the effort, I went to the meeting – but straight off told my interviewer that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was likely not a suitable candidate.
As is common in NYC – a place where everything seems achievable – she said: “That can be arranged. How soon can you begin?” I missed my plane to London.
I was employed there for 36 months. A perk of the job was that I was granted free tuition at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a master’s of international affairs.
I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his identity, but his remarkable generosity transformed my future in multiple respects. I would never have had the bravery or self-assurance to contact anyone at an prestigious college and ask for a job. And, I had always wanted to pursue education overseas, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that job in New York led me to a job in Zurich where I met my handsome spouse from France, with whom I currently share a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That helpful person changed my trajectory in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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