 And I need you to understand what that actually means before I tell you she made the Dean's List. Because if I lead with the honor roll, you might nod and keep scrolling. And B.C.'s story? It is not a scroll-past story. So let me back up. This is Week 3 of a series we're calling The Finish Line & The Front Door. At Move-In Day Mafia, we move in and take care of HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused or struggle with financial hardships. Annnnnnd this spring... We have FIVE seniors graduating! The most we've ever had. Five young people who pushed through the hard days, the confusing days, the "I genuinely don't know how I'm going to make this work" days and are now standing right there at the finish line. And at the exact same time, applications just opened for our 2026-27 school year. Our fifth move-in season. So while one group is about to walk across a stage, another group is standing at the door ready to begin their new journey. That's what this series is about. Both moments. At the same time. Because if you really want to understand what Move-In Day Mafia is, you have to see both. She Was Six Years Old. B.C. entered the foster care system at six years old. Domestic violence. Family chaos. Domestic violence. Family chaos. Neglect so deep that B.C. couldn't tie her own shoes. Could not spell. The neglect hadn't just stolen her stability. It had stolen her start. She was already behind before she ever had a fair shot at the race. And the system was about to keep right on moving without her. She was days away from becoming a ward of the state. Another child absorbed by circumstances she didn't create and could not control but thankfully... Her grandparents stepped in. They were elderly. They were not equipped with a lot of resources. But they showed up. And B.C. began to thrive. Her beginning didn't stop her. She made the Dean's List at Benedict College. Not one semester. Not one year. All ...four...years! Every. Single. Semester. The little girl who couldn't tie her shoes. Who couldn't spell. Who the system had already started processing as a statistic. She walked into Benedict College and stayed on the Dean's List the entire time she was there. That is not something you do by accident. That doesn't happen because things were easy. That happens because somewhere deep in B.C., something decided she was not going to be what happened to her. And she proved it over and over and over again. But that's just the Dean's List part. While she was keeping that GPA locked, she was also building somewhere else. Spring 2024, B.C. crossed into Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Not just a member sitting on the sidelines. She's Treasurer of her chapter and Recording Secretary for the entire National Pan-Hellenic Council. That's not something you stumble into. That's` something you earn when people see that you show up and follow through. And her senior year? She didn't just stay on the Dean's List. She made the President's List. That's a whole other level. She's excelling. And she's not done yet! Graduate school is next. MBA with a concentration in healthcare administration. She's going to work in public health. She's going to do it with the same focus that got her from "I can't tie my shoes" to the President's List. Small Things Have Big Impact This is your moment too. When you grabbed Vaseline lotion and Dove lotion so her skin could breathe after four years of stress and late nights… When you sent Quaker Instant Oatmeal so she had something quick on mornings when studying came before breakfast… When you made sure she had those fruit juices she loves...little tastes of sweetness on the days that felt too hard… And when you said yes to that Chefman 6-quart air fryer when she asked for something special. Not a need. A want. Because you believed she'd deserved it. When you grabbed what was on her list… When you made sure she had what she needed to focus on school instead of survival… You were part of this. Not symbolically. Not in a "every little bit helps" kind of way. In a real, tangible, "she had one less thing to worry about so she could keep her eyes on that Dean's List" kind of way. Honor roll doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens when a student can actually focus. When the basics are handled. When somebody, even somebody she's never met, sends a care package that says without saying it: We see you. You matter. Keep going. That was you. So yes. This graduation belongs to B.C. And you and I get to be proud of it too.   Usually, we show you words from various scholars, but this week, we're sharing B.C.'s voice directly. Because sometimes what a scholar says about herself tells you everything you need to know.  B.C. Is Finishing… Somebody Else Is Just Starting. While B.C. is walking toward the finish line, applications are open right now for our next class. Somewhere, a student is sitting in their own version of what B.C. survived. Maybe they aged out of foster care. Maybe they're unhoused. Maybe they're the oldest sibling holding a weight no teenager should be holding. And they are wondering how they are gonna survive in the college they worked so hard to get into. Well, we're opening the door. Applications for the 2026-27 move-in season are now open. If you know of a scholar we can help, have them head over to 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Apply Your support this move-in season makes sure the next class doesn't have to wonder if they belong. This is how Mafia works. We hold both moments. We celebrate the finish line. And we stand at the front door, ready for whoever's coming next. Help us celebrate five graduating seniors: 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Be part of welcoming the next class: 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Apply  Give yourself the freedom to evolve. I didn't want to be nobody's leader. I was a TV editor and producer in Hollywood for nearly 30 years. I loved that work. I really did. I still miss it sometimes. That was my lane. Supporting leaders. Creating behind the scenes. I was good at it and I knew my place in that world. I loved being a team player. Running a nonprofit? Leading a movement? Being the one the buck stops with? That was never on my radar. I didn't want that life. But then I met a girl who'd aged out of foster care. Just dropped off at college with nothing. And something shifted in me. What if I said yes to becoming something I never planned to be...scared and all? What if I gave myself permission to evolve beyond the version of myself I'd already decided I was? Here's what I know now: God knows His kids. He knew what would make my heart happy. While I loved my career in Hollywood and miss it every once in a while, I couldn't imagine NOT being the Godfather of Move-In Day Mafia. Today, 109 students across 28 HBCUs are thankful that I got over my fears and insecurities...just for them. I mean...FIVE of my babies are graduating! Your next chapter is waiting too. It might look nothing like what you planned. It might scare you. You might have to grieve the version of yourself you thought you'd be. But what would happen if you stopped apologizing for who you used to be and started celebrating who you're becoming? Give yourself that freedom. The world needs what happens when you do. Hug yourself for me. If this made you think about something... or someone... go ahead and share it. You never know who might need that reminder today. And if you're not already part of the Mafia Miracle Makers family, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming next. I'll see you next week. And before you go... don't forget, we've got five seniors getting ready to walk across that stage. If you want to be part of that moment... 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Hug yourself for me! TeeJ "The Godfather" Founder, Move-In Day Mafia P.S. If you missed A.O.'s story from last week, you can read it HERE.  The Finish Line & The Front Door: Week 2 Continuing our series spotlighting the incredible dopeness of our graduating seniors, I am excited to tell you about one of our future doctors. But first...if you're new to Mafia Miracles Report... Move-In Day Mafia is a family that supports HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating severe financial hardship. We don’t just move them in… we stay with them for four years, covering the monthly essentials most people never think about so they can focus on becoming who they’re called to be. Around here, we call that H.U.G.S. — Hope, Understanding, Generosity, and Stability. And this series? The Finish Line & The Front Door is about holding two truths at the same time. During this season, some of our babies are crossing the stage. And at the very same time… our applications are now open, and our potential new babies are standing at the door of college with anxiety about all that is next. Last week, I told you about A.J. who is graduating from Fisk. This week? It's A.O. from Delaware State. A.O. was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and made her way to the U.S. just a few years ago, under circumstances that didn’t exactly come with stability or a safety net. She didn’t arrive with everything lined up. She arrived, trying to figure it out. New country. New systems. New expectations. And no real blueprint for how to navigate any of it. She landed in Delaware, building a life in real time… learning how to take care of herself while also trying to stay on track in school. And that’s the part people don’t always see. Because by the time you meet her now, she looks like she’s always had it together. Senior year at Delaware State. Studying for the MCAT. Pediatrician on deck. Yaaaaaas. Because for most people, that right there would already be enough to celebrate. But baaaaaaaaby… we’re not done. Because she’s doing ALL of this while being unhoused. You read that right. UNHOUSED. Now to be clear, thankfully, Delaware State has policies in place that allow students in her situation to remain on campus during breaks, which has made a real difference. But even with that… That’s not the same as having a true home base. That’s not the same as knowing you have a permanent space to land, to exhale, to fully rest without question. There’s still a level of uncertainty there. Still a level of “how am I going to keep this going?” And she’s carrying all of that while balancing classes, leadership, and studying for the MCAT. Yet, instead of slowing down… instead of saying “let me wait until things get easier”… A.O. said, “Nope… we're moving anyway.” And THAT is what made me lean all the way in. Because she’s not moving like someone hoping this works out. She’s moving like it already did. And while she’s carrying all of that… Maaaaaaan, you gotta see what she's been up to...straight beast mode: • Maintaining a 3.8 GPA as a Biological Science major (health professions) with a minor in chemistry • Holding it DOWN on the Dean’s List for three years and now the Presidential List • Inducted into Delaware State’s Honors Program • Serving as Vice President and Event Manager for the African Student Association • Creating and leading Hive Wars 2026, a campus-wide experience that brought competition, community, and a canned food drive together • Building her own clothing brand, Chosen Generation, rooted in faith and identity • Working in a campus lab and herbarium to deepen her research skills So yeah...A.O. is no joke… I mean, she has been putting in the WORK to get there. Not halfway. Not sometimes. CONSISTENTLY. SO YEAH...YOU SHOULD BE PROUD TOO! When you bought those Capri Suns and those big boxes of Welch’s fruit snacks, you were making sure she had something to grab in between long study sessions and even longer days. When you sent those Scott paper towels and toilet paper, you handled the kind of everyday needs that don’t get talked about, but make all the difference when you’re trying to hold life together. When I saw those BC powders on one of her monthly lists, I’m not even gonna lie… I laughed. I didn’t even know they still made BC. And how does she even know about those?! And when you saw that pink stethoscope, those pink scrubs, and that graduation dress she asked for…  You sowed into her and let her know she was not alone. And whether you look at this way or not… YOU have been part of her getting to this moment, Mafia Miracle Maker. That’s how A.O. made it to the finish line. So yeah… You should be proud, too. Now, as a family, we’ve got one more step We’ve got FIVE seniors getting ready to walk, and we’re covering everything (graduation fees, regalia, gifts) they need for that moment. If you want to be part of that… 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Real Quick… I Need To Correct Something Last week, I told you we had six seniors graduating this spring. That was on me. One of our babies is in a Master’s program and still has more coursework to finish, so her walk is coming in the Fall. And you already know… We’re going to walk all the way through with her. So this spring, we’re celebrating FIVE. And FIVE is still a big deal.  Usually, this section shares screenshots from a variety of our scholars but in celebration of A.O., here are a few of hers.   I’ve been sitting with something lately. 2026 feels different. This is our 5th Move-In Season, and for a long time, I was just trying to get through the season in front of me. Make sure the rooms were done. Make sure our babies had what they needed. Just… make it. But now? We know this works. Lives have been changed. Students are still in school, still standing, still becoming. And once you know that, you can’t think the same anymore. I’ve found myself asking a different question: Not just, “How do we do this again?” But, “How do we make sure this keeps going?” Not just while I’m here… But beyond me. Because this work is too important to be dependent on one person. And if I’m honest, that realization stretched me. It made me look at what I need to grow into, what I need to let go of, and what I need to trust someone else to carry. Because growth isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s about building something that can keep going without you. And I think that’s where a lot of us are. There comes a point where it stops being about getting through the moment… And starts being about what lasts. So if things feel different right now… They probably are. And that’s not a bad thing. It might just mean what you’re building is meant to last. If this made you think about something… or someone… go ahead and share it. You never know who might need that reminder today. And if you’re not already part of the Mafia Miracle Makers family, make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss what’s coming next. I’ll see you next week. And before you go… don’t forget, we’ve got five seniors getting ready to walk across that stage. If you want to be part of that moment… 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Hug yourself for me! P.S. If you missed A.J.'s story from last week, you can read it here.  The Finish Line & The Front Door: A.J. At Fisk Two things are happening at the same time This week, we’re starting something special. For the next six weeks, I’m taking you inside two moments happening at the exact same time. The finish line… And the front door. We have FIVE SENIORS GRADUATING this year. The most we’ve ever had. Five young people who pushed through the hard days, the confusing days, the “I don’t know how this is going to work” days… and now they are standing at the finish line. At the very same time... We just opened applications for our 2026-27 school year. Not just any move-in season...OUR FIFTH!!!!! So while one group is preparing to walk across the stage… Another group is standing at the door trying to figure out if they can even walk in. And if you really want to understand Move-In Day Mafia… You have to see both. We Don't Just Move Them In If you’re new here… Move-In Day Mafia is the family that shows up for students at HBCUs who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating college without a safety net. We don’t just move them in. We stay. Four years. Monthly care packages. Because getting into school is one thing. Staying is where everything gets tested. We are family...or "Mafia Miracle Makers" as I like to call it. Meet A.J. If you are on our email list, on Wednesday, I introduced you to A.J. But I want to sit in his story a little longer. A.J. is graduating from Fisk University in May! Before college, he and his siblings were living in a car while their mom was fighting cancer. He was trying to stay focused in school while carrying a level of responsibility that most adults would struggle under. That kind of pressure could have easily rewritten his story. But it didn’t. Because even in that season… he kept moving. One step at a time. One decision at a time. One “don’t give up” at a time. And eventually… That persistent resilience opened a door. He made his way across the country to Fisk University on a basketball scholarship. From the outside, it looks like that should have been the turning point. But life doesn’t just flip like that. A.J. is the oldest. That didn’t change just because he got to campus. Even while balancing school and basketball, his mind never left home. When NIL money started coming in, he didn’t use it to make life easier for himself. He sent money back to his family, because that’s what he felt called to do. That detail right there tells you exactly who A.J. is His struggle didn't magically disappear. But he kept showing up anyway. And let me tell you something else I love about his story… Somewhere in the middle of all of this, A.J. didn’t just survive college. He stepped fully into it. And when I say that… I don’t just mean he made it through. I mean he made history. He became the first Black man from an HBCU to win the Perry Wallace Courage Award and got flown out to Arizona for the Final Four. His city, Long Beach, showed up and honored him like family. And on top of all of that. He’s graduating in four years… almost debt-free. That alone would be enough to celebrate. But A.J. didn’t stop there. One of his proudest accomplishments? Crossing into Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. And baby… if you know, you KNOW. That’s not just letters. That’s legacy, discipline, and a whole lot of earned pride. And now, in just a few weeks, Persistance and Resilence walks across that graduation stage. Not wondering what’s next. CHOOSING what’s next. Get this...He has a job opportunity with the fire department in Nashville. He has opportunities to continue playing basketball. He has options. And when your life has started in survival mode, the ability to CHOOSE hits different. What I Don't Want You To Miss This is your moment too. When you bought that Palmer's Coco Butter… When you grabbed that Tide detergent… When you tossed his fave cereal, Honey Smacks, into your cart... When you snatched up that Wave brush. You probably thought you were just checking out. But you weren’t. You were supporting A.J.’s pursuit of the finish line. You were helping remove distractions… creating stability… making sure he could stay focused on what mattered. And all those moments? They added up. So yes… This graduation? You, Mafia Miracle Maker, deserve to be just as proud as I am. While He's Finishing...Someone Else Is Just Starting While A.J. is walking toward the finish line… Applications are open right now for our next class. Our fifth Move-In Season! Somewhere, a student is sitting in their own version of that “car moment.” Trying to figure out if college is even possible. Trying to figure out if they’re about to do this alone. This is where the front door opens. If you know a scholar who has aged out of foster care, is unhoused, or is trying to navigate college without support, please have them apply. 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Apply  Typically, this section shows you screenshots from several of our students' forms, sharing their good news. But in honor of A.J.'s graduation, we are showing just his.    Stand in line for somebody else On Wednesday, I attended The State of HBCUs Executive Summit hosted by the Student Freedom Initiative. During the Q&A portion, I had the chance to introduce myself to a panel of HBCU presidents, and I won’t lie… seeing heads nod when I said “Move-In Day Mafia” felt gooooood. It felt like the work was being seen. But that’s not what stayed with me. Nah. What stayed with me was a lone student. You see, after I told the room about the work of Mafia. When the event ended, I was wonderfully bombarded by audience members and the staff of the presidents who wanted to get involved. Standing patiently as I answered questions and connected, this student stood patiently waiting to tell me... Not about herself. About her friend. Her. Friend! She told me her friend is in foster care and just got accepted into Morris Brown College, and she’s scared about not having everything she needs. She stood there… patient… intentional… advocating for someone else’s future. And I couldn’t stop smiling. Because that’s when you know something deeper is happening. When support doesn’t just meet a need… It multiplies. It teaches people to look beyond themselves. To care differently. To move differently. To speak up when someone else doesn’t have the words or the room. And it made me sit with a simple question: What would change if more of us chose to stand in line for somebody else? Before I Go Before we close out this week… We’ve got one more step for our seniors. We created a fund to cover all six of their graduation fees, regalia, and gifts. And now it’s time to celebrate them… properly. Fisk University - 05/03/26 Lane College - 04/25/26 Delaware State University 05/15/26 Paul Quinn College - 05/02/26 Benedict College - 05/02/26 Prairie View A&M - 05/09/26 The total is $2,893. 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Every dollar goes directly to celebrating them the way they deserve, and as always, your gift is tax-deductible. See you next week to tell you about another graduating scholar!  Soooooo… God showed off on me this past weekend. And I’m still sitting here like, “Sir… you really did all that… for ME??” Let me tell you what happened. But first... If you’re new here, welcome to the family. I'm TeeJ, the founder of Move-In Day Mafia. Mafia is what happens when a group of people decides that HBCU students who’ve experienced foster care, housing instability, or major life disruption should not have to “figure it out” alone. We deck out their dorm rooms, send monthly care packages for four years, and surround them with H.U.G.S. Hope, Understanding, Generosity, Stability. And the people who make that happen? Mafia Miracle Makers. Not donors. Family. Now listen… This week's edition is not necessarily spot-on Mafia, but it's related. So stay with me. Because before I was anybody’s founder… before any of this existed… I was a daughter, a sister, a favorite cousin, and a BIG SISTER. And baaaaaabyyyy… I take that job VERY seriously. 😜 For about three years now, I have been watching this baseball league grow called Savannah Bananas. Think Harlem Globetrotters, but for baseball. And when I tell you I was hooked… not even because of baseball… because of the JOY. The owner, the energy, the experience… it just felt like something I could learn from as we build Mafia. So when they announced tickets for the Atlanta game, I entered the lottery… didn’t get picked. And I’m not gonna lie… I was BUMMED. Like real life, sitting there pouting, “I'm a grown woman” bummed. 😒 I told my little brother Bud about it because not only did he go to Grambling on a baseball scholarship, but he’s also now an umpire. We talked about the game, the business, all of it… and then life moved on. Or so I thought. And then… AND THEEEEN… A few months later...This dude… this dude who is 12 years my junior… whom I blazed a trail through our mama’s birth canal… sends me a text: “Guess who just got called up to umpire the New Orleans Banana Ball game?” Mafia Miracle Maker… when I tell you I screamed??? Not a cute scream. Not a ladylike “oh wow.” I mean a full-on “THE NEIGHBORS ARE GONNA CALL THE POLICE” scream. 🤣 Because wait… not only is this the SAME game I was sad about not seeing… now 👏🏾 my👏🏾 little👏🏾 brother👏🏾 is👏🏾 ON👏🏾 THE👏🏾 FIELD??? In the Superdome??? Like… the New Orleans Saints field??? In front of THOUSANDS of people??? 83,000 people to be exact! So of course I said what any loving, supportive, slightly selfish big sister would say: “I don’t care about mama… I don’t care about daddy… YOU BETTA FIGURE OUT HOW I GET IN THAT BUILDING.” And I meant it. 😌 Don't worry. My parents were okay cuz they know how I feel about my knuckle-head little brother and by "little," I mean, he is 41 and 6'4". But guess what… Bud figured it out! Mama didn’t get a ticket. Sorry… not sorry Ma. So boom. I fly to Louisiana. Excited. Can’t sleep. Acting like I’m the one umpiring. And let me tell you… I did NOT come to play. I made a whole shirt for the occasion. Mine said: “Proud Sister of One of the Umpires.” Because if I was pulling up… oh I was making it known.  I get to the stadium, and as I'm looking for my seat, I look down… and there he is. Walking the field. And the tears just start falling. Because in that moment, I wasn’t looking at “Marvin 'Bud' Mercer the umpire.” I was looking at my baby brother. The one I used to wake up for school, get dressed, take to school, pick up… because our mama was working long hours making sure we had what we needed. That little boy… now on THAT field. And then… because God clearly wasn’t done showing out… I realize something. I didn’t even pay for my ticket. His friend Reggie gave me a comp. Cool. Grateful. Thanks Reggie! But THEN… AND THEEEEEEEWN… I look at my seat. Thiiiiiiiird row. But not just any third row. Right field. Y’all… RIGHT. WHERE. BUD. WAS.  I didn’t pick it. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even care where I was sitting. I just wanted to be in the building. And God said, “No… I want you to SEE this.” So I sat there with an unobstructed view, watching them introduce him FIRST, watching him dance on that field, losing my ENTIRE mind like somebody's auntie who doesn’t know how to act. 🤣 And then I remembered… Mama, aka Ms. Thang Thang, didn’t have a ticket. So I video-called her. And y’all… she got to watch her son wave at his mama from the field in front of tens of thousands of people. And by the end of the game? Everybody within at least a 10-seat radius knew: “That’s my little brother out there.” I had told them. More than once. Okay… probably about 17 times. 🤣  While sitting there… crying, screaming, acting a fool… but also real quiet inside at the same time because I realized something. I wasn’t just proud because that’s my baby brother. I was proud because, being 12 years older, I had a hand in raising him. I had a front row seat to his becoming. I poured into that boy. I covered him. I snuck and ate his food so he could finally get down to play after Mama told him he had to finish his dinner. So watching him stand on that field... heck yeah, I was in my feelings. And it hit me… that’s EXACTLY how I feel right now about our babies. Because this year, we’ve got SIX Mafia scholars graduating. SIX. And no… I didn’t raise them from childhood… but because of Mafia Miracle Makers, like you, we’ve walked with them. We’ve shown up. We’ve covered them. We’ve made sure they didn’t have to “figure it out” alone. So when they cross that stage… oh I already know… I’m gonna be just as emotional, just as proud. Because tangible love showed up through YOU… and now we get to watch it graduate. So no… this story ain’t about a Mafia scholar this week. But it IS about the heart behind everything we do. If you'd like to see the highlight reel I did for him, here you go.  Every month when our scholars submit their care package requests, they have to finish a sentence. They choose one: “I’m grateful that…” “I’m excited that…” “I’m looking forward to…” So we like to share some with you.   JOY IS NOT A DISTRACTION Building Mafia is overwhelming and scary at times. If I'm honest, it's a lot. So I could have easily told myself, “You don’t have time for this.” There’s always something to do. Always another need. Always another student to support. But this weekend reminded me of something I don’t ever want to forget. Joy is not a distraction from the work. It’s fuel for it. Those moments where you laugh too hard, cry a little, act a fool in public… Those are the moments that refill you. That remind you why your heart is wired the way it is. So don’t skip them. Don’t rush past them. Don’t treat them like extras. They’re not. They're necessary. Lastly, Adopt-A-Scholar Week wraps up tomorrow. Here's where we are.  If you’ve got $3, there are items waiting right now at that level. And if you’re like me and hate shopping, you can always donate and let us handle the deets." 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Donate See you next week. Don't forget to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE AND SUBSCRIBE. Until then...Hug yourself for me.  In last week's edition, we celebrated something that made me half-scream in my coworking space… In 2025, we had nearly $90,000 in wishlist essentials and $62,906 worth of items bought by you, our Mafia Miracle Makers! And just when I thought my heart couldn’t get any fuller… another story landed in my inbox. But first... If you're new here, Move-In Day Mafia is a family of volunteers and donors who come together to support HBCU students who have experienced foster care, housing instability, or other major life disruptions. We show up with decked-out dorm rooms and monthly care packages so our scholars can focus on school and make it all the way to graduation. We call our family Mafia Miracle Makers. Because that’s exactly what you do. You set miracles in motion. Soooooo earlier this week, I received a request from one of our Prairie View A&M scholars. Inside, it had a life update that I literally said out loud… Wait. Hold up. You've done WHAT? Apparently, one of our Mafia babies has been out here building a résumé that would make grown folks tired. Listen to this. L.I. is a senior at Prairie View, majoring in Mass Communications with a minor in Political Science. She’s been on the Dean’s Honor List since 2023. Now that’s impressive. Especially when you hear her backstory. But that’s not the part that had me leaning back in my chair. Because when we first met L.I., college wasn’t even part of the plan. At 15 years old she entered the foster care system. Her mother was no longer able to care for her, so when CPS removed her little sister, L.I. made a decision that still gives me chills. She put herself into the system hoping it would help her stay connected to her sister. Read that again. She…put…herself…in…the…system. Just to try to stay close to her little sister. Unfortunately, they were placed separately. When we met L.I., she hadn’t seen her sister in over a year. And college? College wasn’t even on the radar. Her plan was simple. Get a warehouse job. Her words. Not mine. But somewhere along the way another nonprofit stepped into her life and helped expand her vision. They helped her see that something bigger might actually be possible. So she started taking classes at a junior college. And somewhere along the way… Something beautiful happened. She fell in love with learning. Thank goodness. Because noooooow… This young woman is at PV doing the kind of things that make me shake my head and smile. She pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. I had no idea. And theeen… She got involved in Student Government. And theeeeen… She worked her way up and is now serving as Chief of Staff for Prairie View’s Student Government Association. And theeeeeeeeen… Because apparently she likes to stay busy… She’s spent the last four years advocating for youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. And theeeeeeeeeeeeen… She helped organize March to the Polls on campus to encourage student voting. The turnout was so strong that it was featured on local news. And somewhere in the middle of all of that? She’s also been featured on Good Morning America, NBC News, and The Atlanta Voice for her advocacy work. But get this...it gets even gooooooder... L.I. IS OFFICIALLY RUNNING FOR STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT OF PRAIRIE VIEW A&M!!!! If elected, she would serve as the 45th SGA President!!!! Yes! Yes! Yes! To Alllllll the Yeses In Yessissippi! Now if you’ve ever experienced campaign season at an HBCU, you already know. It is a whole production. Signs. Events. Campaign materials. Buttons. All the things. Her campaign budget is $1,200, and she reached out to see if our Mafia Family might be willing to stand behind her. And family… This feels like exactly the kind of moment we show up for. If you’d like to support L.I.’s campaign expenses, you can donate here before Saturday, March 14. SUPPORT L.I.’S SGA PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Every dollar given through that link will go directly toward helping her run her campaign. And yes… your gift is tax-deductible through Move-In Day Mafia.  Every month when our scholars submit their care package requests, they have to finish a sentence. They choose one: “I’m grateful that…” “I’m excited that…” “I’m looking forward to…” So we like to share some with you.   There’s something powerful hiding inside L.I.’s story. Before Prairie View. Before Student Government. Before running for SGA President. There was a moment where someone simply believed she was capable of more. Remember… L.I. didn’t even think college was an option. Her plan was to get a warehouse job and start working. But someone stepped in and told her she was capable of more. And she listened. Sometimes the biggest miracle in someone’s life is simply borrowing someone else’s belief until their own catches up. I know that feeling personally. When I first started Move-In Day Mafia, we had $3,500 in the bank and a wild idea to move students into college dorms. No nonprofit background. No blueprint. No idea how we were going to pull it off. Just a nudge from God and a whole lot of faith. But people started believing in the vision before I fully understood what it could become. They donated. They volunteered. They shared the story. And for a while? I had to hold on to their belief until my own caught up. Now look at what this Mafia family has built together. We've moved in 109 scholars at 28 HBCUs...because of YOU! So if you’re in a season where something feels too big… Too uncertain… Too “who do I think I am to even try this?” Let me remind you of something. Sometimes you don’t need full confidence to start. Sometimes you just need one person who believes you can do it. Borrow that belief. Hold on to it. Walk anyway. Because one day you might look up and realize the thing you were scared to start… Is exactly the thing you were meant to do. And before we wrap up, one quick reminder. Adopt-A-Scholar Week kicks off tomorrow. That’s when our scholars’ monthly wishlists open again, and it’s one of the most direct ways this community shows up for them month after month. Because sometimes the thing that changes someone’s life is simply knowing… Somebody believes in them. And around here? That’s exactly what this family does. If this story made you smile the way it made me smile… Take a second to like, comment, share, and subscribe so more people can see what happens when a community decides to believe in students who are often told they can’t succeed. Because the more people who see this movement… The more yeses we get to give. See you next week. Hug yourself for me! TeeJ  If you're new here, Move-In Day Mafia is a community of volunteers and donors who come together to support HBCU students who have experienced foster care, housing instability, or other major life disruptions. We give them decked-out dorm rooms and monthly care packages to see them through to graduation. We call our supporters Mafia Miracle Makers, because that’s exactly what they do. Now, most weeks in the Mafia Miracle Report, I tell you about two or three miracles. Maybe a breakthrough for one of our scholars. Maybe a moment where God showed up right on time. Maybe a story that makes my heart swell and yours too. But this week? We’re only talking about one. Because this week I want you to sit with something. Something we discovered when we ran the numbers from last year. And when I say discovered, I mean something that made me literally say, “OMG… look what the Mafia just did.” Because sometimes the miracle isn’t one dramatic moment. Sometimes the miracle is what happens when hundreds of people quietly show up month after month. And when we finally added everything up… Well… Let’s just say I had to read that spreadsheet twice. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YESES! Recently, my team sent me a spreadsheet summarizing our 2025 Adopt-A-Scholar Week numbers. Now let me pause right here and confess something. I hate spreadsheets. Not dislike. Not avoid. I mean full-on “why are there so many tiny boxes and numbers everywhere” hate. So my team has learned to send them to me in bite-size chunks, because for some reason my brain just refuses to cooperate when I’m staring at rows and columns. But this one? This one stopped me. Because I started reading it the way I always do… left to right.  The first column was labeled Total Wishlist Cost. And when my eyes landed on the number at the bottom, I blinked. $86,074. That’s how much need our scholars had across their wishlists last year. And I remember thinking, “Wait… we helped cover nearly ninety thousand dollars worth of student needs?” I honestly had no idea the number had climbed that high. But then my eyes moved to the next column. And that’s when I really had to sit back in my chair. Because that column showed what the Mafia itself had to cover. $23,168. Which meant something incredible had happened in the column right next to it. Because if the total need was $86,074… And we only needed $23,168 to close the gap… That meant our Mafia Miracle Makers had stepped in and taken care of the rest. $62,906 worth of those wishlists!!!! Ooooooooweee, when I tell you I stared at that number… I mean I stared. Because that didn’t come from one giant donor. That came from this family showing up month after month. Little by little. Item by item. Someone grabbing a $3 box of tea. Someone sending a $200 wig so a student could feel confident walking across campus. Someone covering a $400 refurbished phone so a scholar could stay connected to school and work. Hundreds of individual purchases that added up to $62,906 worth of student needs being covered. And the remaining $23,168? That’s where another beautiful part of this community stepped in. Because not everyone loves shopping. (Lord knows I don't.) So some Mafia Miracle Makers say, “I'm sending you the money to grab that bible the Delaware student asked for.” "Here's a donation to grab those sneakers the Shaw student needs." Therefore, that final portion was covered through direct donations, corporate partners, and our monthly Miracle Makers, allowing the Mafia to make sure every single need was handled. Which means between the generosity of this family and the support of our partners… Every single wishlist need got covered. And here’s what makes that even more powerful. When this Mafia family steps in and covers needs like that, it frees up our budget to do what we came here to do in the first place… Bring in more scholars and keep saying YES. Because my team had just sent the numbers over while I was sitting in my coworking space. And when I realized what I was looking at, I did what can only be described as a whisper scream. You know the one. Not a full scream because there are people around. But loud enough that a couple folks popped their heads up over their laptops like, “Everything okay over there?” And I’m sitting there wide-eye grinning at my screen thinking, OMG. $86,074?! TOTAL!  Eight Six Thousand And Seventy Four Dollars!!!! Do you understand what that means? That means this Mafia family showed up month after month and covered over eighty-six thousand dollars of what our scholars needed to stay steady in college. Not from one giant donor. From people pooling together. Hundreds of individual acts of generosity. Until one day you look up and realize this community quietly covered $86,074 worth of student needs. And yes, I know I've said $86,074 dozens of times already. I can't help it. This is huge! Earlier this week, I was talking with a potential funder, and I found myself explaining something that’s become really important to me about how this work happens. I told her: When someone gives to Move-In Day Mafia, it means we GET TO GIVE more Yeses. Yes to the bedding. Yes to the supplies. Yes to the phone a student needs to stay connected to school and work. Yes to STABILITY. And when I realized this family had created $86,074 worth of yeses for our scholars? I just sat there smiling in that coworking space. Because that’s not just generosity. That’s family making sure our students never have to figure college out alone. And while I was still sitting there grinning at that spreadsheet… Another realization hit me. Something I hadn’t even thought about before. As I looked at the timeline of those purchases… I noticed something that had quietly happened last year. For the first time in Move-In Day Mafia history… Our scholars were supported all twelve months of the year. Let me say that again. All. Twelve. Months. And that matters more than people realize. Just because school lets out in May, doesn’t mean the challenges our scholars face suddenly disappear. In fact, for many of them, summer is the hardest season. Some of our students are couch surfing. Some are trying to figure out where they’re going to land until the dorms open again. Some are navigating unstable housing situations that most college students never have to think about. Which means summer support can be the difference between a student returning in the fall… or not returning at all. So the fact that Mafia family kept showing up month after month… January. February. March. All the way through December… means our scholars had something incredibly powerful. They had family all year long. I’m sitting in a coworking space looking at a spreadsheet that shows this Mafia family quietly stepped in and covered $86,074 (yes I said it again) worth of student needs. Which made something very clear to me. This isn’t just people donating to a cause. This is family pulling together. Month after month. Item after item. Yes after yes. Until one day you look up and realize something incredible is happening. Lives are changing. Futures are stabilizing. Dreams are getting the green light. And that, Mafia Miracle Makers… iiiiiis... Miracles In Motion.  Every month, our scholars have to complete at least one sentence stem:
  Sometimes when I see numbers like $86,074, my mind goes all the way back to the beginning.
Back to Dallas. Back to the very first Move-In Day Mafia. Back to me stepping off that plane with $3,500 in our bank account and 13 students we had promised to move into their dorms. Let me tell you something… I did not have a clue how we were going to pull that off. Not the furniture. Not the supplies. Not the logistics. Nothing. But faith knew something my spreadsheet didn’t. Faith knew we would get there. And sure enough, before that first move-in day was over, someone stepped in and added $17,000. That was the first miracle. Now here we are years later, looking at a community that showed up and covered $86,074 worth of student needs. And it reminds me of a scripture that has always stuck with me: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” Zechariah 4:10 That verse hits differently when you’ve lived it. Because when you’re standing at the beginning of something God-sized, you almost never have the full picture. You just have the first step. Right now, I still don’t know exactly how we’re going to get to a Move-In Day Mafia chapter on every one of the 101 HBCU campuses. But I do know this: You don’t get there by waiting for perfect conditions. You get there by starting. Start dirty. Start ugly. Start unsure. Start with your knees knocking. Start with your teeth chattering. Start with people wondering if you’re a little bit crazy. Just start. Because S.T.A.R.T. means: Stop Talking And Roll Tenaciously. And if you keep rolling long enough… Those small beginnings will turn into something that makes you look up one day and say, “OMG… look what God just did.” So if that story about $3,500 turning into $86,074 worth of yeses stirred something in you… There’s a way to help create the next miracle. The Miracles In Motion Collective is the group of monthly Mafia Miracle Makers who help us prepare for Move-In Season and make sure we can close the gaps when our scholars’ wishlists aren’t fully covered, by joining the family of monthly supporters. Because every time someone joins… We get to give more yeses. More yeses when students arrive on campus. More yeses when needs pop up during the year. More yeses when a scholar just needs a little stability to keep going. If you’d like to stand with these students in that way, you can join the Collective here: MoveInDayMafia.org/Monthly And if this story made you proud of what this Mafia family is building… Take a second to like, comment, and share so more people can see what happens when a community decides to show up. Because the more people who see this movement… The more yeses we get to give. Hug yourself for me.  Every month our scholars submit their care package forms. And on it, they have to finish one sentence. They pick one: “I’m grateful that…” “I’m excited that…” “I’m looking forward to…” I read every single one and most of the time, the answers are range... Passing a test. Making the Dean's List. I ended a relationship that wasn't good for me. Finally understanding a class that was kicking their butt. Then I got to P.J.’s sentence:  This did something extra to my heart. See… P.J. didn’t come to Clark Atlanta on a straight line. Her dad was never really around. Her mom left that relationship when she was a baby because it was abusive. She grew up as the second of ten kids, trying to find her place in a world that never felt very settled. Then at 17... SHE WAS PUT OUT. Can you imagine the fear, the uncertainty? For a while, she stayed with a friend, trying to figure out where life was going to go now. College wasn’t the conversation anymore. Survival was. Clark Atlanta had always been her dream school, but after that, she wasn’t trying to pick a major. She was trying to figure out if she even had a future that included school at all. And then a woman opened her home to her. P.J. calls her one of her heroes because she did more than give her a place to stay. She gave her permission to dream again. Which brings me to the part that got me. When P.J. was 11 years old, her mom took her to an Atlanta Hawks game for HBCU night. She doesn’t remember the score. She wasn’t watching the basketball. She was watching the dancers. And she decided right then: One day, I’m going to do that. Fast forward. This year is her first year on the Morehouse Mahogany in Motion dance team. And that sentence she submitted on her care package form told me she was about to step onto that exact floor. The same one she stared at from the stands as a child who didn’t know yet how hard life was going to get. I could suddenly see two versions of the same girl at the same time. An 11-year-old locked in on the dancers and not the scoreboard. And a 17-year-old trying to figure out where she was going to sleep after being put out of her home. Those two girls were separated by a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of nights she didn’t know what the next step was supposed to be. And now this college student… our Clark Atlanta scholar… was about to step onto that exact court in front of THOUSANDS of spectators. That’s when JOY hit me. I wasn’t excited because she was dancing at an NBA game. I was excited because a dream that could have quietly died had somehow survived. Because somebody took her in. Because she kept going. Because she made it to campus. Because she auditioned anyway. And because she didn’t just make the team. She got the moment she imagined before life got complicated.  I love watching dreams come true. That's why our Mafia tagline is "Where dreams get the greenlight...one dorm room at a time." My favorite moments at the helm of this miracle movement...miracles yall help us pull off is when life stops looking like survival for them and starts looking like a great college experience. Experiences. Friends. Hobbies Plans. Normal. That word matters more than people realize. I celebrate the big, undeniable miracles. But some weeks the miracle is simply a student getting to have a normal college life. Thank you for being our partner in miracles. And if you are new here...Move-In Day Mafia provides decked out dorm, rooms, and monthly care packages for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, or unhoused, or experience, severe financial hardships. To date, we have moved in 109 students at 28 HBCUs! WHELP! I LOST MY PROFESSIONALISM...AGAIN! So let me tell you what happened. A few weeks ago a large popular foundation reached out and asked to meet. I didn’t prepare a pitch deck. I didn’t rehearse a presentation. I showed up to talk. I told them the truth. I told them where our students struggle, the parts nobody sees after move-in day, and the areas where I knew they already served well. I honestly hung up thinking, “That was a really good conversation.” Based on their reactions, I figured maybe they’d help us with a program and possibly a low five-figure gift. Which would have been wonderful. So we scheduled a follow-up meeting this week and I logged on expecting to discuss logistics. Instead… she caught me off guard. She calmly said they had decided to invest in Move-In Day Mafia. And then she said the number. SIX FIGURES!!!!!! OMG SIX FIGURES MAFIA MIRACLE MAKER! I didn’t maintain composure. I didn’t nod professionally. I didn’t do the nonprofit executive thing. I cried. More than once. Not polite tears. The kind you cannot stop even when you try to regain your dignity on a video call. And I wasn't even embarassed. Because in that moment, I wasn’t thinking about budgets. I was thinking about the late night conversations with my team. I was thinking about the months where I wondered if we could keep showing up the way our students need us to. I was thinking about how often I quietly say, “Lord, please cover this.” There was no pitch. No proposal. No formal ask. Just God. Sending help I didn't even know how to ask for. And I don’t say that casually. I know the prayers I’ve prayed. I know the fears I carry. I know the responsibility of students who don’t have a backup plan. That gift didn’t feel like recognition. It felt like relief. Because here is the truth: organizations like ours don’t just need help to start students in August. We need stability so students can stay in October… and November… and February… when life happens and college becomes fragile again. When I think about our baby P.J. stepping onto that court, I don’t just see a dancer. I see what becomes possible when a student has enough stability to keep going long enough for life to get good. This grant wasn’t about our organization. It was about protecting outcomes like hers.  Here are a few more shots of their good news.   After the six-figure grant conversation ended, I sat there for a long time. Not celebrating. Not strategizing. Just… thinking and thanking. Because that moment didn’t start this week. It actually started in 2020. I need to tell you something I did not handle well. When God told me to move to Atlanta from Los Angeles in 2020… I pitched a whole fit. He had already pulled me out of my Hollywood career. I loved editing. I loved production. I loved my life in Los Angeles. That was my city. My friends were there. My history was there. And now He wanted me to leave that too??? The part that really got me was this: He didn’t even tell me what I was moving to Atlanta to do. All I knew is that it had to do something with HBCUs. That was it. No details. No job description. No timeline. Just go. And I did not want to do it. I did not want to start over. New life. New friends. New community. I was finally honest with Him about it because I didn’t understand why relocation was necessary for whatever He was calling me to do. That’s when I felt Him say that what He was calling me to build would require me to live in a city where my resources understood I was part of that community. I didn’t fully understand it, but I understood it enough to stop arguing. So I packed up my life, drove across the country, got here… …and a few days later the world shut down. I remember sitting in my new apartment thinking, “You brought me across the country for THIS?” Fast forward to this week. The grant we just received happened because Move-In Day Mafia is rooted in Atlanta. The relationship, the trust, the proximity… all of it came from being here. That is what drew them to us!...We were based in Atlanta! Not from a pitch. Not from networking. Not from strategy. From obedience. I didn’t understand the instruction when I got it. I definitely didn’t like it when I got it. But sometimes God positions you long before He reveals why. And sometimes the miracle you’re praying for today is sitting on the other side of an instruction you didn’t want yesterday. Now before I sign off for the week... Don’t do it… Don’t read this and think, “Oh they got a big grant. They don't need me.” That grant was a blessing, but move-in season still comes every year. The Miracles In Motion Collective is how we prepare for the next group of scholars who are coming in August. Therefore, we still need you in the family with your monthly support, Mafia Miracle Maker. So if you haven't already, please lock in with us. And listen… You don’t have to do something big. Even $1 a month makes you family, and we pool our dollars together. Most people start at $10, and that level gets you #IBelieveInMiraclesForMoveInDayMafia merch plus helps us plan ahead for our incoming scholars. MoveInDayMafia.org/Monthly See you next week. Don't forget to like, comment, share and hug yourself for me.  I’m not going to say Dr. Vicki Robinson was stalking me. But I WILL say she had been very, very quiet untiiiiiiiiiiil... I needed her. I discovered this the way most Move-In Day Mafia problem-solving begins. With a Facebook post and a prayer that somebody’s auntie knows somebody. See....what had happened was... One of our Prairie View A&M students started the semester, but their housing still wasn’t settled. Classes were starting and campus life was moving forward… but the answer to where this student would actually be living had not arrived yet. For some students, that’s inconvenient. For OUR scholars, it can become urgent very quickly. Because when you don’t have a parent’s home to go back to, no guaranteed couch, and no emergency hotel money, “we’re still reviewing your housing” stops sounding administrative and starts sounding like: Where am I sleeping? And this is probably a good place to pause and explain, just in case you're new here... Move-In Day Mafia is a group of volunteers who show up at HBCUs to move students into their dorm rooms and then stay with them for the next four years. We support students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating serious financial instability. Our goal is simple. Get them out of survival mode so they can actually BE college students. We call it H.U.G.S. Hope. Understanding. Generosity. Stability. Which means when housing isn’t settled, it isn’t a paperwork issue for us. It’s a life issue. We had tried the normal channels and were waiting. Nobody at the university was being unkind. Universities are systems, and systems move at...well system speed. Students live at HUMAN speed. So I did what I have learned actually works. I asked my people. Social media has become one of our strongest tools. I trust our community. Time after time, when a student has needed help, somebody knows somebody who knows somebody and doors open through relationships long before they open through processes. So I made a simple Facebook post asking if anyone had a contact in Prairie View administration who could help us get clarity for the student. A few hours later, I got a DM.  So I responded exactly how a mature nonprofit founder should respond: “LawdHamMussyGeezus.” Then I told her I needed a minute because I had to pick my mouth up off the floor. Because my very real question was: How did my Facebook post about one student’s housing make it all the way up to YOU? Her response was short. “I follow you.” And suddenly I had a brand new concern. How long had she been witnessing my shenanigans? Here’s the part I didn’t understand yet. That message wasn’t a one-time assist. It was an introduction. Dr. Vicki didn’t just help that student. A few months later, she retired from the U.S. Department of Education… and stayed with Mafia. She helps us interview scholars. She helps us navigate universities when we don’t even know what questions to ask yet. She steps into rooms our students don’t have access to and advocates for them with wisdom and calm. She prays for this organization. And during move-in season, she shows up and works like a volunteer, not a dignitary. No announcement. No spotlight. Just presence. I am still in awe of her humility and her willingness to get in the trenches while also quietly having my back. I didn’t recruit her. I didn’t network my way to her. I didn’t even know to pray for someone like her. I was just trying to help a student find somewhere to sleep. But that DM was the first moment I realized something important. Move-In Day Mafia wasn’t only growing in students. It was growing in covering. Sometimes God doesn’t just solve the problem you’re asking about. Sometimes He sends a person who helps you solve the problems you don’t even know are coming yet. Dr. Vicki...Thank you for having my back!  This part always matters to me. Because what we’re aiming for is not just survival. It’s normalcy. Class. Friends. Participation. Focus.  Here are challenges a few of them shared.  When students have stability, their lives start to look like college instead of crisis management. That’s the real miracle most weeks.  Leadership still surprises me. I didn’t set out to run an organization. I kept responding to needs… and eventually the needs formed a responsibility. What I am slowly learning is this: When an assignment is real, you are never expected to carry it alone. Help shows up in different forms. Some people bring resources. Some bring time. Some bring wisdom. Some bring prayer. Some bring protection you don’t even realize you needed. You don’t always know to ask for them. But God does. And sometimes the first sign is a message you weren’t expecting from a person you didn’t know was watching… who had already decided you weren’t doing this by yourself. See you next week. And as always, like, comment, subscribe and hug yourself for me. And one last thing... Tomorrow is the final day of Adopt-A-Scholar Week. Each month our students share what they need and our community quietly makes sure small problems don’t become school-ending ones. You can see the lists at MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar Or donate and we’ll shop for you at MoveInDayMafia.org/Donate   Before we get into what miracle Amazon helped Mafia manifest this time...if you are new here... I'm TeeJ, founder of Move-In Day Mafia. We support HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are fighting serious financial challenges. We move like family and we stay like family. And every week, I share miracle moments that God makes for Mafia. See. What had happened was... Right before Christmas, I got a call from Terreta Rogers, Head of Community Affairs for the Georgia Region at Amazon. The convo was simple... No proposal. No pitch. She simply said they wanted to do something special for two of our Atlanta scholars for the holidays. I was already smiling because our students rarely receive something that is just joy. Most of what they get from us is necessary. Life-stabilizing. Rent-saving. Crisis-preventing. Beautiful, yes… but practical. Then she added, casually, that Amazon was also sending Move-In Day Mafia another $10,000 check. Wait. What??? Another???? Because they had already given $10,000 during move-in season. And $10,000 the year before! I started screaming in my house. At least this time, I waited until I got off the phone with Terreta this time. Here’s why that hit me the way it did. When I first started Move-In Day Mafia, companies like Amazon were a Year 10 dream. Not a Year 2 reality. I figured if we stayed faithful, stayed consistent, and proved this model worked long enough, maybe one day a company like that would believe in it too. So having Amazon not only show up, but keep coming back… honestly still catches me off guard. But! I wouldn't get to be there this time to witness their generosity. I would have to be overseas officiating a wedding. So my right hand and boots-on-the-ground coordinator, Mina Starks, went in my place.   Because that’s what partnership looks like. The relationship wasn’t with a personality. It was with the mission. But honestly? The check wasn’t even the whole story. Amazon has been showing up for Mafia behind the scenes. Last move-in season, they helped handle logistics across our three Atlanta campuses. That alone is enormous. Move-in day is organized chaos held together by prayer, volunteers, and group texts. LOL Having a partner step into operational responsibility is not small. ✅ They transported 1,000 sheet sets that The Container Store in Dallas donated to us and got them all the way to our storage unit in Atlanta. ✅ They’ve sent people power to multiple move-in days. ✅ They sponsored the dorm room game at THEE HBCU Bingo Experience. And then they came back at Christmas and loved on our students personally!!!! At some point, you realize you’re no longer dealing with a sponsor. You’re dealing with A PARTNER! Sponsors fund moments. Partners invest in students. And when a company keeps returning, keeps helping, keeps asking “what else do they need?”…you understand they don’t just see an organization. They see our babies!...About 8 years sooner than I dreamed! WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STUDENTS' MINDS AREN’T BUSY SURVIVING One of the biggest misconceptions people have about helping students is thinking support just makes life easier. It doesn’t. It makes focus possible. When a student isn’t wondering how they’re getting toothpaste…or whether they can stretch groceries to the end of the month…or whether a small emergency will derail their semester…their brain is finally free to do what it came to college to do. Learn. Explore. Try. Believe they belong there. And when that mental weight lifts, look at what starts happening. A first-year scholar at Spelman, was just accepted into the National Honor Society.  Not surviving. Excelling. Another scholar, R.A., at Howard, texted me after I wrote a recommendation letter for a competition. SHE GOT IIIIIIIIN!  She wasn’t just excited about the opportunity. She was excited that someone believed she should even apply. That’s the part people don’t see. Confidence is not automatic for students who have had to figure life out early. Many of them have learned to keep their heads down, not draw attention, not take risks. But when they know they have people behind them, something changes. They start hearing a different voice in their head. “I’m supposed to be here.” Oh but that's not all... • A Howard University scholar became a certified yoga instructor • A Prairie View scholar passed her insurance licensing exam • A Fisk scholar landing a prestigious internship with Builders Mutual • A Prairie View engineering major returning from studying abroad in Paris after previously interning on the Princess Tiana ride at Disney This is what support actually produces. Not dependency. Capacity. The groceries matter. The bedding matters. The care packages matter. Because they buy something you can’t put on a wishlist. MENTAL SPACE! And when students finally have mental space, they stop just trying to make it through college. They start building a future inside it. WHEN HELP TURNS INTO OWNERSHIP A few weeks ago during a scholars' meeting, I said something without really thinking about it. I told them, “One day my dream is that one of you becomes my successor and runs Move-In Day Mafia.” I expected laughter. Instead, a message popped into the group chat almost immediately. “I’m claiming that, Auntie.” It came from one of our Fisk scholars. I laughed in the moment, but later his mentor told me something I didn’t know. He had already been saying that after graduation, he wanted to come back and volunteer with Mafia. And that’s when it hit me. We are no longer just helping students get through college. We are raising future caretakers. So I made it official. I appointed him our Mafia Student Liaison. If he wants to carry this one day, I’m going to start pouring into him now. Because the real proof a mission is working is not that someone was helped. It’s that someone who was helped now wants to help someone else. Every dorm room. Every care package. Every reminder that they matter. You are not just supporting students. You are helping build the people who will stand in the gap for the next group after them. And that is why the MIRACLES IN MOTION COLLECTIVE (MIMC) exists. WHERE YOU COME IN People often see the big moments. Move-in day reveals. Scholar celebrations. Wishlist packages arriving at dorm rooms. And starting tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, you’ll see them again. ADOPT A SCHOLAR WEEK OPENS! And our students will share the Amazon Wishlist items that help them live day-to-day on campus. If you enjoy choosing something personal and sending encouragement directly, this is your moment. They feel every bit of that care. MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar to get notified. But here’s the part most people don’t see. Adopt A Scholar is how we love students during the year. The Miracles In Motion Collective is how we get ready for them before the year even starts. Monthly support helps us handle the parts no wishlist can solve...the unexpected calls, the travel, the last-minute situations, and the preparation that has to happen long before August arrives. So tomorrow, shop if you want to love a student personally. And if you want to help us be ready before the crisis ever shows up, that’s what the Collective is for. Join the Miracles In Motion Collective: MoveInDayMafia.org/Monthly  A few weeks ago we talked about hurdles. And I’ve still been thinking about that. I ran across a TikTok where someone said their personal mantra was: “You can suck… but you can’t skip.” I don’t even remember who said it, but it has been living rent-free in my head ever since. Some days my daily power walk is strong. Music loud. Pace quick. I feel like I made responsible life choices. But at least once a month (read between the lines,) my body simply does not cooperate. Not laziness. Not lack of discipline. Just a day where everything feels heavier than it should. Those are the days this mantra matters most. On those days my walk looks very different from “optimum TeeJ.” No hills. No speed. No dramatic fitness comeback montage. Sometimes it is slow. Sometimes it is short. Sometimes I am counting the minutes. And sometimes I never feel better at all. But I still go. Because I’ve stopped requiring the result and started honoring the decision. I don’t have to do it impressively. I don’t have to do it long. I don’t have to feel amazing afterward. I just can’t skip. And I realized something. My best on that day is not my best on another day… and that does not make it less valuable. For years we’ve been taught that effort only counts if it produces a visible outcome. But some days obedience IS the outcome. My best that day was good enough. You can apply that anywhere. The email you send even if it isn’t perfect. The project you touch for ten minutes. The apology you attempt even if the words come out clumsy. The habit you keep alive when you barely have energy. Some days excellence looks like momentum. Some days excellence looks like consistency. So this week, release perfection. You can be tired. You can be slow. You can be unimpressive. You can even suck. You...Just...CAN'T SKIP! That's it for this week. Don't forget Adopt A Scholar Week OPENS TOMOOOOOORROW! MoveInDayMafia.org/AdoptAScholar In the meantime, like, share, comment, invite, and hug yourself for me!  A Year 10 Dream, Manifested in Year 3, From a Seed Planted in Year 2 Hey Mafia Miracle Makers!!! I need to tell you how this miracle actually unfolded, because it wasn’t just one big moment. It was a string of small, Spirit-led moments that lined up just right. It started with me showing up to an HBCU event, being myself, cracking jokes, and following a nudge I couldn’t explain at the time. BUT FIRST…IF YOU’RE NEW HERE Move-In Day Mafia is a nonprofit rooted in H.U.G.S. Hope. Understanding. Generosity. Stability. We move HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or fighting serious financial challenges into their dorms and surround them with family for four years through monthly care packages, resources, and community. This report is called the Mafia Miracle Report because what happens around these scholars is never coincidence. And THIS story absolutely earns the name. IT STARTED WITH ME BEING…WELL…ME Last year, I attended a stop on The Different World original cast tour at Clark Atlanta University. For context, A Different World was a legendary 90s TV show that centered HBCU life and culture. The cast had been touring HBCUs, pouring back into the culture, and Cisco Systems was one of the tour sponsors. I got on the elevator with a group of people, including Mina, my Move-In Day Mafia right-hand, and for reasons I still can’t explain, I started joking and teasing one particular woman on the elevator. Just being silly. Everybody laughing. The woman was dishing it back. No clue who she was. We get off the elevator, go our separate ways, and I fully expect that to be the end of it. Inside the venue, I chose a seat on the third row. Then, about five minutes later, I felt that familiar internal nudge from the Holy Spirit to move. I changed seats and landed in the front row next to a woman who turned out to be a Howard grad. Turns out, her daughter was the moderator for the panel. After the program ended, the crowd moved quickly. I didn’t get a chance to properly say goodbye to my seatmate because we were pulled in different directions. Mina and I ended up in the lobby because I was hoping to catch Dawnn Lewis, one of the actresses from A Different World, to thank her in person.  She had previously given Move-In Day Mafia this beautiful testimony through a mutual friend, and I simply wanted to say thank you. So we waited. While we were sitting there, I noticed my seatmate from earlier, the Howard grad, walking by with her daughter, the moderator. I hadn’t gotten the chance to properly say goodbye before, so I jumped up to catch them. Proud mom introduced me to her baby and it clicked. Her daughter was a news anchor. And in that split second, I remembered who she was married to. Someone who had helped me in a meaningful way in the past. I wanted to grab a quick picture to send him later and say, “Guess who I ran into tonight?” But that’s when I realized something else. I had left my phone behind. With Mina. Which is wild, because my phone is usually glued to my hand. That detail felt small in the moment. It wasn’t. AND THEN…ANOTHER NUDGE I chalked up my left-behind phone to merely a missed opportunity. I didn’t get the selfie. I didn’t get to send the picture. And I figured that was just one of those moments that wasn’t meant to happen. So Mina and I gathered our things, ready to head out. And that’s when the timing doubled back on itself. As we were leaving, I noticed the moderator was still standing nearby, talking with someone else. I had no intention of interrupting. I was ready to leave anyway. But there it was again. That familiar prompting of the Holy Spirit. "Stay. Go get the picture." So I did. And guess what I heard? The gentleman she was talking to explaining that he was the person who oversees HBCU relationships for Wells Fargo. Now you already know...my ears stood straight up. When their conversation wrapped, I politely asked the moderator if we could grab a quick photo. She graciously said yes and I made a note to myself to text her hubby. Time to go! As I turned to walk back toward Mina, I noticed the Wells Fargo rep was still near. Not rushing off. Just kind of lingering. And again, I felt it. I followed the nudge, introduced myself, and told him about Move-In Day Mafia. He perked up, brought his team over, and before we knew it, he invited Mina and me to attend the Morehouse stop, which would start in an hour and was walking distance from the Clark Atlanta campus. And little did I know, that short walk was quietly carrying me right back to the woman from the elevator that morning. LATE-NIGHT PITCH TURNED PARTNERSHIP At the beginning of the Morehouse panel, one of the sponsors was acknowledged. Cisco Systems...You know...the company that most of us know for providing all of our conference room speaker systems. A Cisco rep, Scott McGregor, took the stage to kick off the program and then we listened to the Morehouse students ask the Different World cast some great questions. After the session wrapped, people started drifting off into conversations and goodbyes. I set off to find my new Wells Fargo bestie to thank him. While I was waiting to tell him goodbye, I saw Scott from Cisco standing near him alone. That’s when I felt it again. That same Holy Spirit nudge. Confused, I had no clue why I would need to introduce myself to anyone at Cisco but I did and shared all about Mafia with Scott. He listened and seemed to be genuinely intrigued. Then, waving her over, he said, “I want you to meet my colleague. She’s on the team that awards our grants.” And when she turned around… I burst out laughing. She did too. It was the same woman from that morning in the elevator. The one I had been joking with. The one I didn’t know. The one who had no idea who I was or what I did and vice versa. I officially met Mrs. Shaunya Ishmael. When she realized who I was, we both just cracked up again. One of those full-circle, wait-a-minute moments that makes you stop and smile. Once the laughter settled, Scott looked at me and said, “Tell her what you do.” So I did. I told her about Move-In Day Mafia. About the students. About move-in season. About surrounding scholars with family when they don’t have one. And Shaunya lit up. Not politely. Not professionally. For real. She told me they had a grant coming up and asked if I’d send her information. I looked at her and said, trying to sound casual even though my heart was racing, “Is tonight too late?” She laughed and said no. And I meant it. Because by the time she opened her email the next morning, Move-In Day Mafia was already sitting in her inbox. That email turned into a meeting. That meeting turned into a pitch. That pitch turned into a $15,000 grant. But more importantly, it turned into a ride-or-die advocate in Shaunya Ishmael and a real partnership with Cisco. Cisco showed up for Move-In Day Mafia in 2024. They showed up again in 2025. But this time…they took it even further. THE MIRACLE, LOUD AND CLEAR Last move-in season, Cisco brought Human-I-T into the Mafia family. Human-I-T is a nonprofit organization on a mission to close the digital divide by getting technology into the hands of people who need it most, students, families, and communities who are too often locked out of opportunity simply because they lack access. Together, they put laptops in the hands of ALL 26 of our new Move-In Day Mafia scholars!!!  Every single student we moved in for the 2025 academic year. No waitlists. No “we’ll share.” No “figure it out.” THEIRS. Now pause with me for a second, because this is where some folks might miss the weight of this. A laptop is not a “nice to have” for these students. It’s not extra. It’s not a perk. It’s the difference between: • keeping up and falling behind • applying for internships or missing deadlines • attending virtual office hours or staying silent • building a future or constantly playing catch-up For some of our scholars, this was the first laptop they had ever owned. Not borrowed. Not issued for the semester. Not shared with three roommates. Owned. And when those laptops hit their hands? You could feel it. Relief. Pride. Confidence. Possibility. This is what happens when companies don’t just say they care but fund, build, and show up to deliver. Cisco sent volunteers who came ready to work. Not “corporate pop-in” energy. Real sleeves-rolled-up, let’s-get-it-done energy. They showed up present, engaged, and invested in our scholars in a way that did not go unnoticed.   And alongside them, Human-I-T’s Richard McCall and Jared Rezak were right there in the mix. Richard and Jared stayed with us late into the night during Move-In Season 2025 at Clark Atlanta, Spelman, and Morehouse. We’re talking 2 and 3 a.m. late.  Lifting. Moving. Troubleshooting. Refusing to leave until the work was done. So yes, this started as a dream I thought would take ten years. And yes, it manifested in year three. But because Cisco and Human-I-T said yes when it mattered… Twenty-six scholars are logging into class differently this year. Prepared. Equipped. Seen. That’s the miracle and Mafia is so much better because of persistent partners like them! And get this. As I was putting the finishing touches on this edition, I got another call from Cisco, telling me that they had put our name in the room for ANOTHER opportunity for our scholars. Yeah, that's partnership and our scholars are thriving as a result!  I’ll let their words speak for themselves.   Sometimes we think miracles require massive effort. But this whole story was built on split seconds. A seat change. A pause. A nudge. An introduction. None of it felt big in the moment. Until it was. So if something small keeps tapping you this week, don’t dismiss it. Move on it. Your yes might be the seed for someone else’s breakthrough. Thank you, Cisco. Thank you, Human I-T. Thank you to every advocate who carries our scholars’ names into rooms they haven’t entered yet. And thank you, Mafia Miracle Maker, for believing with us. Until next week... Hug yourself for me! As always, we need your support of the mission at MoveInDayMafia.org/Donate |
AuthorTEEJ MERCER - TeeJ never set out to be an entrepreneur. She definitely didn’t plan to run a nonprofit. But after 25 years in Hollywood, editing and producing for major TV shows and movie studios, she saw a story that needed to be told. More importantly, she saw a PROBLEM that needed to be solved. Archives
April 2026
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