The soothing sounds of a waterfall and sweet smells of lavender aren’t exactly commonplace in New York City’s public schools, but the nonprofit Fostering Meditation (FM), founded by Demetrius Tercheron Napolitano, 30, is aiming to change that by outfitting schools with calming meditation sessions and yoga rooms to practice in.
Napolitano began FM in June 2020 to help students nurture their mental and physical health and develop mindfulness. He refers to his method as “The Five Steps 2 Wellness: Meditation, Yoga, Expressive Writing, Community, & Nutrition.” His first classes were held at P.S. 108 School of Authors in East Harlem, the elementary school he attended as a youth.
“When I was here at PS 108, I was also in foster care, so as a child, I had a lot of anger issues and things that I struggled with because there was abuse (and) neglect,” said Napolitano. “Coming to school, those behaviors manifested and showed up in my everyday behaviors. This space that we’re in—our meditation room—was our detention room when I was here.”
A Harlem native, Napolitano was born Tercheron Taylor. He entered the city’s foster care system as an infant. When he was adopted at five years old, he experienced physical, verbal, and sexual abuse over the next several years at the hands of foster parents. In response, Napolitano ran away at the age of 13, landing in a juvenile detention center and briefly in a psychiatric hospital. He struggled with complex trauma, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He ended up going through a total of 30 foster homes before finally being adopted at the age of 21 as he aged out of the foster system.
His mentor, Katie Napolitano, and her husband, John Napolitano, adopted him as a young adult when he was in college, providing much-needed love, community, and financial support to finish schooling. He earned an associate’s degree in business management from St. John’s University and graduated from New York University (NYU) with a bachelor’s degree in political science. While he was at NYU, a friend introduced him to the art of meditation. Napolitano was so committed to learning more that he started a GoFundme campaign in 2019 to support a $17,000 trip to India. He hoped mastering mindfulness could help him manage his lifetime of trauma and anxiety.
“It became the first time I was aware of how I could use my breath to recenter myself,” said Napolitano. “And from a childhood where they tried medication, needles in my buttocks at a psychiatric ward—all these white therapists, and no one ever said, ‘Take a breath.’”
The meditation room at PS 108 officially opened in 2022. It features a converted locker room with padded floors, pillows, a waterfall, murals, music, and low lighting as a safe haven from daily classes. Napolitano teaches yoga and guided meditation sessions that are open to pre-K through eighth-grade students, other teachers, and parents. He also collaborates with the school’s social workers to safely address students who may have behavioral problems.
“Meditation is important for everyone, but especially I’ll say for Black men and Black people, because of all the trauma, anxiety, and stress that we [experience]—to be Black in itself is a job,” said Napolitano. “Meditation helps us regulate our nervous system, helps us center ourselves and calm down, and creates more space so we can be responsive rather than reactive.”
In 2023, FM partnered with five schools, several nonprofits, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the Robin Hood Foundation, and Deloitte. Napolitano plans to convert another meditation room at PS 138 in Manhattan in the near future.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.