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During the closing decade of the 80s, I was beginning a low-cost journey to the European continent with a friend. Because my travel mate was interested in pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had arranged a 14-day stopover there en route to London.

We arrived at the graduate housing, a large 10-storey building on the Upper West Side known as International House. Once we unpacked, we went directly to the dining hall, where we picked up meals, sat down, and started talking to people eating there.

Beside me was an Iraqi man enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I did for a living, and I explained that I had recently completed my studies with a science degree and had been performing experiments involving microscopic analysis.

He mentioned that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – adjacent to the engineering faculty, which was how he knew about it. He suggested that I consider applying for a role with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, saying that I was soon departing to Europe and, additionally, I didn’t have a US visa.

The next day I toured the city, coming back to the dining hall that after dark. The Iraqi student approached me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Because he had made the arrangement, I went to the meeting – but straight off explained to my host that I lacked the necessary visa, so I was likely not a suitable candidate.

In typical New York fashion – a metropolis where opportunities abound – she said: “We can make that happen. What's your start date?” I never got on that flight to London.

I was employed there for three years. A perk of the job was that I was granted no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to complete a graduate degree in global studies.

I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his full name, but his selfless gesture changed my life in multiple respects. I lacked the confidence or self-assurance to reach out at an elite institution and seek a position. Additionally, I had long dreamed to pursue education overseas, but could never have afforded it without that free tuition.

What's more, that role at the university resulted in a position in Switzerland where I met my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have a family of four kids. This was a pivotal life event. That helpful person set me on a different course in life, and I’m eternally thankful.

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