During the late 1980s, I was beginning a low-cost journey to Europe with a travel partner. Because my travel mate was considering pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had planned a two-week stay there on the way to London.
We got to the student accommodation, a big ten-floor structure on the Manhattan's Upper West Side called International House. Once we unpacked, we went directly to the dining hall, where we picked up meals, found a table, and began chatting with people eating there.
Adjacent to my seat was an gentleman from Iraq enrolled in an engineering program at an Ivy League institution. He asked me what I did, and I shared that I had just graduated with a science degree and had been working on studies involving microscopic analysis.
He noted that there was an electron microscope unit at Columbia University – close to the engineering faculty, which was why he was aware of it. He proposed that I ought to seek a role with them. I laughed it off, saying that I was heading off to Europe and, more critically, I did not possess a US visa.
The next day I went out exploring, returning to the canteen that evening. The engineering student approached me and let me know that he had organized a discussion for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Since he had taken the effort, I went to the meeting – but immediately informed my prospective employer that I was without a work permit, so I was probably wasting her time.
In typical New York fashion – a city where everything seems achievable – she said: “We'll handle it. When can you start?” I never got on that flight to London.
I worked there for three years. A perk of the job was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to finish a postgrad program in international relations.
We didn't cross paths after that and I can't recall his identity, but his remarkable generosity transformed my future in multiple respects. I would never have had the bravery or self-assurance to reach out at an Ivy League university and seek a position. Moreover, I had always wanted to study abroad, but lacked the financial means without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that role at the university resulted in a job in Zurich where I got to know my handsome spouse from France, with whom I now have four amazing children. It was a total sliding doors moment. That benevolent individual redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
Can you recall the Most Generous Act a Unknown Person Has Ever Done for You?
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