The soothing sounds of waterfalls and the sweet smell of lavender are not common in New York City public schools, but Fostering Meditation (FM), a nonprofit founded by Demetrius Tercheron Napolitano, 30, is We aim to change the situation by providing equipment that calms the mind. You can practice in a meditation session or in the yoga room.
Napolitano started FM in June 2020 to help students foster physical and mental health and develop mindfulness. He calls his method “Five Steps 2 Wellness: Meditation, Yoga, Expressive Writing, Community, and Nutrition.” His first classes were at his PS 108 School of Authors in East Harlem, which he had attended as a young man.
“When I was here at PS 108, I was in foster care as well, so I had a lot of anger issues and struggles because of the abuse (and) neglect I had as a child,” Napolitano said. I did. “When I came to school, those behaviors showed up in my daily actions. This space that we’re in, our meditation room, was my detention center when I was here.”
Napolitano, a Harlem native, whose real name is Tershuron Taylor. He entered the city’s foster care system as an infant. He was adopted at the age of five and for the next few years suffered physical, verbal and sexual abuse at the hands of his foster parents. In response, Napolitano ran away at the age of 13, was committed to a juvenile detention center, and was briefly admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He was battling complex trauma, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He ended up in a total of 30 foster care facilities, aged out of the foster care system, and was finally adopted at the age of 21.
His mentors, Katie Napolitano and her husband John Napolitano, adopted him as a young adult while he was attending college and provided him with much-needed love, community, and financial support to finish school. provided. He earned an associate’s degree in business administration from St. John’s University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from New York University (NYU). While he was at New York University, a friend of his introduced him to the art of meditation. Eager to learn more, Napolitano started his GoFundme campaign to support his $17,000 trip to India in 2019. He hoped that learning mindfulness would help him manage his lifelong trauma and anxiety.
“For the first time, I became conscious of how I could use my breath to re-center myself,” Napolitano said. “And from my childhood in the psych ward, trying drugs and getting needles stuck in my butt, all the therapists I had were white, no one ever said to me, ‘Take a breath.'”
The meditation room at PS 108 officially opened in 2022. Renovated locker rooms feature padded floors, pillows, waterfalls, murals, music, and low lighting for a safe haven from daily classes. Napolitano teaches yoga and guided meditation sessions that are open to students from preschool through eighth grade, other teachers, and parents. We also work with school social workers to safely work with students who may have behavioral issues.
“Meditation is important for everyone, but I especially want to say this to Black men and Black people because we all have trauma, anxiety, and stress. [experience]“Being black is a job in itself,” Napolitano said. “Meditation helps regulate your nervous system, centering and calming yourself, and creating more space allows you to be reactive rather than reactive.”
In 2023, FM partnered with five schools, several nonprofit organizations, the Administration for Child Services (ACS), the Robin Hood Foundation, and Deloitte. Napolitano plans to renovate another meditation room at his PS 138 in Manhattan in the near future.
Aliama C. Long is a reporting American military member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your gift, matched by an RFA grant, will help her keep writing stories like this one. Visit us today to consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount. https://bit.ly/amnews1.
