I step out of the subway and the buildings are covered in big, bold signs in Chinese characters. I admire beautiful jade and intricate gold jewelry in the store windows that line the street. I smell Chinese food wafting from the cart on the corner and restaurants nearby. But I can also see Citi Field in the distance…yep, still in New York. Flushing, Queens, to be precise.
I’ve lived just outside New York City my whole life; my family would visit regularly for shows and shopping. The train ride from my hometown into downtown was shorter than my commute to work on the subway is now, yet I was traveling to an entirely different city. What I considered to be New York City was a fraction of reality. My work for Public Health Solutions has transformed my view of New York; it’s not just Times Square or the glamour of Fifth Avenue. It’s not just Yankee Stadium where I have seen the men in pinstripes play every year since I was a kid. Instead, it is the communities in Queens, in Brooklyn, in Harlem. It is the mothers that I meet in the Public Health Solutions WIC Centers who work so hard to provide the best for their children. It is the families that I help to enroll in public health insurance programs. It is the communities, each unique in their character and challenges, that embody New York City’s multiculturalism.
As Facilitated Enrollers for public health insurance, Luul (my co-fellow) and I have traveled throughout Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. I have heard more languages spoken, met people from more countries and cultures, and taken the New York City public transportation system furtherthan I ever thought possible. It’s amazing to me that I could get on the subway in my historic neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan, and step off in an entirely different community and STILL be in New York City! This fellowship, in the few short weeks I have been here, has transformed my conception of my home and my community.
I have also learned first-hand how public health policy is actually implemented. Luul and I help to directly enroll New Yorkers in public health insurance programs, while simultaneously researching and participating in discussions surrounding greater policy reforms with city-wide non-profit consortiums. Public Health Solution’s programming is, in part, successful because of our flexibility; we are able to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of federal and state programs by implementing them at the community level. In our orientation at the organization, we have been exposed to all types of ‘red tape’, while at the same time participated in programs that are able to circumvent those type of barriers to ensure that public programs reach the communities in need. It has been an eye-opening experience to say the least, in one of the places I would least expect these types of surprises. And it has only been 2 months! I can’t wait to see what I learn in a year.