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In the final years of the 1980s, I set out on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a companion. Because my friend was interested in pursuing a master’s degree in the Big Apple, we had booked a 14-day stopover there before heading to London.

We got to the postgrad residence, a sizeable 10-storey building on the Upper West Side called International House. Once we unpacked, we went directly to the cafeteria, where we got some food, took a seat, and started talking to fellow residents.

Beside me was an Iraqi man enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He asked me what I did for a living, and I told him that I had just graduated with a science degree and had been working on studies with electron microscopy.

He noted that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He suggested that I consider applying for a role with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, saying that I was heading off to Europe and, more critically, I didn’t have a US visa.

The next day I toured the city, coming back to the dining hall that after dark. The engineering student approached me and informed me that he had arranged an interview for me with the leader of the research team at Columbia. Given that he had gone to the trouble, I showed up for the discussion – but straight off told my prospective employer that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was unable to accept the role.

As is common in NYC – a city where everything seems achievable – she said: “That can be arranged. How soon can you begin?” I never got on that flight to London.

I worked there for a trio of years. A perk of the job was that I was granted free tuition at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a postgrad program in international relations.

I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his identity, but his selfless gesture changed my life in so many ways. I lacked the confidence or self-belief to reach out at an prestigious college and request employment. Additionally, I had consistently hoped to pursue education overseas, but could never have afforded it without that educational benefit.

Perhaps most importantly, that gig at Columbia led me to a job in Zurich where I encountered my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That benevolent individual redirected my path in life, and I’m always appreciative.

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