Bobst....7/3/2007

So, just to update you all on how my internship is going, I recently received my assignment for the community health needs assessment to be written. I am working on needs assessments for the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. These publications will go to community members, organizations, health care providers, and policy makers and will act as a portrait depicting the status of these two communities in New York City. I’m really excited to be putting out something that will be of tangible benefit to the community. For each of the needs assessments, I will be working on the background and health status sections. This will mostly involve reading scholarly articles and writing a review of the literature that is accessible to lay people.
The needs assessment also includes a section detailing the history of these communities in America as well as immigration trends that are pertinent to their settlement in New York and America. The other intern, who is working on a needs assessment for the Korean and Chinese communities, and I decided that journal articles did not give us enough information on immigration patterns so we decided to do a book search at the NYU libraries and acquire lending privileges.
Our first stop on the search for lending privileges was the NYU SoM libraries two blocks north from where we work. After explaining our situation and filling out a form, we were given bar codes for our IDs and directed to the main NYU library on the Washington Square campus. We hopped on one of the NYU buses which are free for those with NYU IDs and headed towards the Bobst library.
When we arrived, the only thing I could think was “Bobst is an architectural feast for the eyes.” Although from the outside, it appears to be just like any administrative building, red brick façade looming over Washington Square, the architecture inside is amazing. Once you step through the doors, your gaze immediately jumps to the modernist silver staircase that spans the 11 floors of the library (only those above ground, there are two more below ground.) After procuring the books I needed, I spent a little time just admiring the library. The architecture of Bobst reminds me how much I’ve missed the city but also reminds me of Stanford and how I miss my bike and sitting in the quad chatting.