NCA Center for Communication, Community Collaboration, & Change

Finding Her Role in the Community: BCC Intern Experiences “Growth” in Her Position

Posted on May 3, 2021

A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, seeking to make a difference in health and wellness for the Black and Brown community, interns at the Beloved Community Center (BCC) to assist in the organization’s communication efforts as part of the NCA-CCCC grant project.

Andréa Metcalfe, 24, of Greensboro, joined the BCC in January. She describes her BCC internship as “multi-layered” and “uplifting the position of the BCC” by creating social media posts, working on their mailing list, producing a social media toolkit for future interns, and drafting a new website for the organization.

“The most interesting thing about the internship has been challenging myself to take on multiple professional roles of which I had limited prior experience,” she said. During her internship she has worked on social media, writing and editing articles in newsletters, redesigning the website, facilitating conversations, as well as keeping up to date with multiple emails and the mailing list.

According to Metcalfe, she is figuring out how to show up and represent herself as a Black, Latin, and Native American woman while taking part in building community with the BCC. Through her experience, such as attending the BCC’s weekly community tables, she is learning “to sit back without judgement and with curiosity.” Metcalfe says there is a lot of background work the interns of BCC take on and it feels great “when you see the fruition of your labor.” 

Although Metcalfe’s internship is coming to an end in late June, she does not want to leave community work behind. Instead, she is just getting started and is “hyper-focused” on social justice issues. Outside of her work with the BCC, she is an activist with the Greensboro Justice Coalition and their work to bring justice for Marcus Deon Smith, who was fatally hogtied by Greensboro Police Department in 2018.

With one of her largest passions for healthcare, Metcalfe wants to continue to focus her justice initiatives by taking part in the robust wellness movement that started in the Black and Brown community.

Today, she is carving out a way to incorporate her interests in social-justice, preventative health care, and holistic wellness through various methods of interventions, such as yoga and acupuncture. Metcalfe is already on her way to becoming a certified yoga instructor and learning American Sign Language. Her ultimate goal: “making myself as accessible as possible to different people.”