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During the final years of the 1980s, I was beginning a backpacking trip to Europe with a travel partner. Since my travel mate was considering enrolling in graduate studies in New York, we had booked a 14-day stopover there en route to London.

We arrived at the graduate housing, a big 10-storey building on the Upper West Side called International House. Setting down our luggage, we made our way to the dining hall, where we grabbed food, sat down, and started talking to people eating there.

Beside me was an gentleman from Iraq studying engineering at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I did for a living, and I told him that I had newly finished with a scientific background and had been working on studies with electron microscopy.

He pointed out that there was an electron microscope unit at Columbia University – right next door to the school of engineering, which was why he was aware of it. He suggested that I ought to seek a job with them. I laughed it off, telling him that I was heading off to Europe and, more critically, I did not possess a US visa.

The following day I toured the city, coming back to the dining hall that after dark. The man from Iraq came up to me and informed me that he had arranged an interview for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Since he had taken the effort, I attended the interview – but straight off explained to my prospective employer that I was without a work permit, so I was probably wasting her time.

Reflecting the city's spirit – a place where opportunities abound – she responded: “We'll handle it. How soon can you begin?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.

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

We didn't cross paths after that and I am unaware of his name, but his incredible act of kindness altered my destiny in multiple respects. I lacked the bravery or self-belief to reach out at an prestigious college and ask for a job. And, I had long dreamed to pursue education overseas, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that educational benefit.

Perhaps most importantly, that role at the university resulted in a job in Zurich where I encountered my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have four wonderful sons and daughters. This was a pivotal life event. That helpful person changed my trajectory in life, and I’m always appreciative.

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