 Haaaaaaappy Friday. Oooooooweeee. Pull up a chair for this one because we have been building to this moment for weeks. We spent the last few weeks highlighting this year's grads in our Finish Line & Front Door series. To read our first four stories... A.J. from Fisk. A.O. from Delaware State. B.C. from Benedict College. G.T. from Paul Quinn. And now we are here. Meet our fifth. M.N. from Lane. But first...just in case you are new here. Move-In Day Mafia is the family that shows up for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating college under severe financial hardship. We don't just move them in. We stay. Four years. Monthly care packages. Because getting in is one thing. Staying, is where everything gets tested. We are family. Mafia Miracle Makers, as I like to call it. MEET M.N. Lane College. Jackson, Tennessee. Interdisciplinary Studies, English and Arts. From Memphis. M.N. had been in the foster care system since she was three years old. Three. Her parents struggled with mental health and criminal activities. There were stretches when M.N. and her siblings were left alone for months. No lights. No water. Neighbors would check in to make sure they were still breathing. Her brother is currently serving six life sentences. She was barely two years old when that happened. She and her sisters were split up. Moved around. Sometimes with family who were abusive. Sometimes with families dealing with their own housing instability. Then, when M.N. was 7, one foster family took all three sisters together. That held for a while until... M.N. came out as gay at 17, and they put her out. She went to live with friends. Couch-surfed from Memphis to Nashville to Arkansas. She was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and anxiety. She got to college and failed out freshman year. Took a year and a half off with nowhere to land. At one point, she slept behind an AutoZone. Outside...behind an Autozone. Can you even imagine? And then she decided...just that simple...decided: "I didn't want to be broke my whole life." That decision was made by a young girl...behind an AutoZone...who got tired of the story she was living and decided it was time to write a different one. I'm thankful for resilience. She packed up what she had. And got herself back to Lane College. But this time? Different resolve. Different maturity. Different M.N. She locked in. And...she...killed...the...game. The young lady who entered foster care at three graduated #4 in her class.  WITH INK ON HER HANDS & A NEEDLE IN HER POCKET Out of all of that chaos, all of that instability, all of those years of just trying to survive, something unexpected grew. Art. Art rose up and she ran with it. I'm jumping up and down now. Watch where her art took M.N. Five art galleries. M.N. participated in five of them while she was in school. A tattoo apprenticeship. Competitive. Thousands of applicants. Selected based on the strength of her portfolio alone. She won. Her first commissioned pieces. She sold them while she was still a student. The President's List. Seven consecutive semesters. Not once. Not twice. Seven straight semesters, she was on that list. President of three clubs at the same time. Robotics. Art club. Creative writing. Business owner. Tutor. Student worker. Peer mentor. All at once. All while holding her grades. And now she is being commissioned to paint murals.  She watched Ink Masters as a kid. She loved art, poetry, cartoons, color. She has a dream of making Afrocentric animation, of working for Studio Ghibli one day. And while she was in college, surviving and building, she took a tattoo needle and turned it into a career. She didn't wait until after graduation. She built the business inside the degree. That is discipline. That is vision. That is what happens when someone decides their history is not going to be their destination. And when a community of people shows up to make sure they have everything they need to prove it. YOU SHOULD BE PROUD TOO In the last four years of doing Mafia, the biggest thing I've noticed is how taking care of their basic needs enables these scholars' minds to explore, expand, and take flight. Every month, they submit their care package wishlists. And every month, I learn something about who they are by what they ask for. M.N. asked for a tattoo chair. Not a pillow. Not a candle. A tattoo chair. Because she wasn't just getting through school. She was building a business inside of it. When you bought that tattoo chair, you were investing in an entrepreneur who hadn't graduated yet. When you grabbed that stencil printer, you were stocking the studio of an artist who was already turning her art into a career before she ever walked across a stage. And then there were the Rice Krispies Treats Crispy Marshmallow Squares, the Gatorade, the Pringles, the Doritos, the Cheetos. Every. Single. Month. When you tossed those in the cart, you were sending her a little piece of joy on the days the grind got heavy. And then there was the month she ordered a whole stack of Manga and Anime books. You bought them. When you said yes to her wishlist, month after month, you were saying: we see all of you. That was YOU, Mafia Miracle Maker. You were not just sending supplies. You were sending proof that somebody believed she was worth investing in. Your investment plus her tenacity, her determination, her refusal to quit...walked across that graduation stage as #4 in her class. Ready to help us celebrate FIVE graduating seniors? This year we have five scholars crossing the stage. The most we have ever had in one year. We are covering their graduation regalia, fees, and gifts so they walk across that stage feeling every bit of what they earned. If you've got $1, $10, $100 or whatever feels right, it all goes toward that moment. 👉🏾 MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates  Usually, this section shares screenshots from a variety of our scholars but in celebration of M.N., here are a few of hers.   Last week I told you I was writing to you from New York City. I went to be in the studio for the final taping of the Sherri {Shepherd} Show. To be front row for my friend, the same way she has been front row for me. You already know that story. What I did not tell you is that I came home with a souvenir nobody asked for. A bug. A full-on, knocked-me-flat, had-me-in-bed-since-Friday bug. And here is the thing. I have a lot going on right now. Applications are open. Move-In Season is coming. HBCU Bingo, our in-person fundraiser in July, is coming. So I fought it. I pushed through. I kept telling myself I didn't have time to rest. And my body said: yes, you do. I finally had to stop. Lie down. Let my body do what it was trying to do. And somewhere in the stillness, I remembered something I already knew. My healing comes in rest. Delaying rest was not making me stronger. It was making recovery harder and longer. I was working against myself. I also had to trust that God is not surprised by my timing. He knew the Sherri taping was last week. He knows Move-In Season is coming. He knows about HBCU Bingo coming up. He knows about all of it. So, my getting sick didn't just pop up on Him. Which means maybe the rest was part of the plan, too. Some days, doing your best looks like a full calendar and a packed schedule. And some days, doing your best looks like pulling the covers up and letting your body heal. Both are doing your best. If you are running on empty right now, pushing through something you probably should have sat down with a long time ago, I want to ask you something. What would happen if you trusted that the work will still be there after you rest? Because it will be. And you will do it better when you are whole. Rest is not quitting. Rest is preparation. See you next week, Mafia Miracle Maker. And don't forget... You can donate to our graduate fund through next week. 👉🏾MoveInDayMafia.org/Graduates Thank you for being the community that showed up for M.N. And for all five of them. Hug yourself for me. Like, comment, share and subscribe.  I MISCALCULATED. Haaaaaaappy Friday. I am writing to you from New York City today. Not Atlanta. Last Wednesday, I told you we would reveal the last scholar in The Finish Line & The Front Door series. I had it all planned out. But then I got on a plane. I needed to be in the studio for the last taping of the Sherri Show. You might know Sherri as an Emmy Award winner, a former co-host of The View, a New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most recognized faces in entertainment. Tyler Perry recently cast her in Straw, and she killed it. She is one of the funniest standup comics working today. And I get to call her "friend." A 25-year friend to be exact. And my girl is closing a chapter...her show is ending. I needed to be in this studio. Front row. The same way she has been front row for me more times than I can count. Some things you do not miss. You just show up. There is more about all of this later in the newsletter. Keep reading. Two Things. I'll have to write the last Finish Line & Front Door scholar next week. But today, I need to talk to you as a sister friend, not as the nonprofit founder of Move-In Day Mafia, which, by the way, is the family that shows up for HBCU students who have aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or are navigating college under severe financial hardship. We don't just move them in. We stay. Four years. Monthly care packages. Because getting in is one thing. Staying is where everything gets tested. We are family. Mafia Miracle Makers, as I like to call it. Now. Let's Celebrate. I have to shout about two of our scholars one more time. PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS. You remember L.I.? And remember a few weeks ago, several of you chipped in $1,200 so she could buy the materials she needed to run for SGA President at Prairie View A&M. Well. L.I. has been elected the 45th Student Government Association President of Prairie View A&M University for the 2026–2027 academic year. OMG OMG OMG SHE DID IT. And not only that. She is only the 5th woman ever to hold that title in the history of that institution. She entered foster care at 15. Her original plan wasn't college. It was a warehouse job. Get to work. Survive. She runs the Hill now. Congratulations, Madam President. We see you. And then there's W.N. Our Delaware State scholar who landed a Disney internship. Yeah. That Disney. Some of you moved fast when we asked about airline miles and hotel points to help her get there. Thank you. We got her flight covered, but now we are working on the hotel. She needs a hotel for a couple of days before her official housing check-in. May 16th is coming fast, so if you have hotel reward points, please email us at [email protected]. If you want to donate... → Chip in for W.N.'s Disney trip W.N. worked too hard to miss this over a few-night stay in a hotel. The Morning My Phone Blew Up Last week, my phone started going off. Instagram notifications. Text messages. Back to back to back. I was first terrified, thinking those nude photos of me dancing at Magic City to make money for Move-In Day Mafia had been leaked.😜 It was not that. What it WAS... was Sherri. Apparently, on that day's show, she had shared a story about one of our conversations in her opening monologue. And it had resonated with her audience in a way that had comments blowing up and strangers sending me the clip. See...what had happened was... The Call. Sherri called me early one morning. I am not a morning person at all. I had no business being awake at that hour. But for some reason, that morning, I was up. I answered and immediately heard her hyperventilating. My heart dropped. The only thing running through my mind was her son, Jeffrey. I started talking her down. Slow. Calm. Getting her to breathe. It took a few minutes before I could actually understand what she was saying. And when I finally did? It wasn't Jeffrey. For the first time in her entire career, Sherri Shepherd, the woman who has performed standup in front of thousands, co-hosted national television for years, and acted in major films, was completely freaking out about... An audition. A Broadway musical audition. First time ever. She was so nervous that she said she needed to sing. And if you know Sherri, her singing capabilities begin and end at karaoke. She told me how tired she was from the long hours she'd been putting in. How she'd practiced so much that her voice was gone and now her voice sounds like "fried chicken." Yeah, that's exactly what she said. I don't know what fried chicken sounds like at all. Do you? Having to think quickly before she completely lost it, I simply told her...well...how 'bout I just let HER tell you.   What I did not expect was what happened after. At the taping and again at the wrap party, once they realized I was there, members of Sherri's staff told me the same advice had helped them, too. People who had been in that studio every day. People who had watched Sherri build something for years and were now feeling the weight of it ending. They needed to run God's receipts, too. Maybe you do as well.  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:  Well Mafia Miracle Maker, that's a wrap for this week. I'll see you next week for the last Finish Line Scholar. I will not miscalculate this time. Until then, don't forget to donate to W.N.'s travel expenses or email [email protected] Don't have the budget right now? You can always smack the "share" button. That helps too. Hug yourself for me! TeeJ "The Godfather" Move-In Day Mafia |
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
May 2026
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