Help community healer participate in her college graduation. After overcoming childhood  homelessness, and serious illness to earn her bachelors, Melanie Funchess deserves to walk the stage. 

By Erica Bryant ~ (on Substack: @ericalikesalligators)

Go Fund Me: Help Mama Mel Achieve Her Educational Dreams

Melanie “Mama Mel” Funchess completed much of her college coursework from a hospital bed. This was her fifth attempt at getting her bachelor’s degree, and she was not about to give up. Despite a life-threatening bout with Wernicke’s encephalopathy last October, Melanie has fulfilled her Howard University requirements with a 3.9 average. All that stands between her and her long-dreamed-of walk across the graduation stage this May is a $12,000 tuition bill. 

We are feverishly trying to raise this money before Friday, May 1, the deadline for her to get her diploma during Howard’s School of Education graduation ceremonies. She would very much like to walk the stage, but says she’s grateful just to be alive. “I didn’t think I’d make it to 18,” she said. “But here I am sitting here at 57, able to graduate college.”

As a child in New York City, her parents’ difficulties forced Melanie to prioritize survival over school. Her father was a brilliant mathematician, but easy to take advantage of and ended up in prison after helping a “friend” with a robbery. Her mother suffered from schizophrenia and was horribly abusive. Melanie recalls being beaten out of the blue, her mother’s large silver bracelets bruising her body and spirit.

At that time, mental health care was scarce, and struggles were kept behind closed doors.  She doesn’t blame the adults who failed her, saying, “Everybody did the best they could with what they had. But she has worked tirelessly to build systems of care and healing that can prevent children from experiencing what she experienced. She has earned her nickname “Mama Mel” by nurturing, healing, inspiring, and caring for countless people in Rochester, including me. 

College has been a 40-year-goal for Mama Mel. She was a precocious child, who convinced her mother to let her watch the Watergate hearings at age 5. In addition to being very smart, she loved reading books and the news, and tested well enough to receive admission to the elite Bronx High School of Science. But she could never focus on her studies. Family housing was always precarious and to buy food for her and her brother, she had to pick up bottles to collect the nickel deposit. Her mother eventually left Melanie with her paternal grandmother saying “she wasn’t her child.” Melanie was mistreated there and her father told her she shouldn’t have to accept such treatment from family. At 12-years-old she left that house, hoping to find safety in homeless shelters. Sadly, she faced danger and assault, and finally ended up sleeping at the Port Authority, which was safer than government-run options for homeless children at the time.” I was taken care of by the ladies of the night,” she recalled. She survived, but couldn’t manage to stay enrolled in Bronx High School of Science. By the time she dropped out, her hair had turned grey from stress. 

Still, she always knew she wanted to go to college, and much of the appeal was the idea of having a place to live for 9 months in a row and a meal plan with 3 meals a day. When she was about 15, a chance trip brought her up to Rochester and she met the woman who would adopt her, providing her with her first safe and stable home. 

Her first attempt at college was at SUNY Brockport, and she tested so close to perfect on her GED test, that the college admissions officers brought her in for questioning, thinking “There has to be more to the story.” More difficult life circumstances — caring for sick family, financial concerns, trauma, illness–  forced her to drop out. She later attended Southern University, an experience she credits with making her see that her blackness was a superpower and where she met her husband. But stress and trauma had wreaked havoc on her, and due to sickness she had to leave without a degree.   

Despite her formal education challenges, she built a career in mental health and healing. Many would consider her to have a pHd in community care, culturally responsive healing, and restoring the village. She tries to build the systems that would have helped her and her family, providing children with the kind of support and healing she needed as a child. She was the Director of Community Engagement and Family Support Services for the Mental Health Association for many years and founded Ubuntu Village Works, an organization that creates culturally responsive healing spaces. She was elected as a Rochester City School Board Member and is currently the director of mental health and wellness at Common Ground Health. 

Even having accomplished all that, she has always wanted to get her college degree. Lacking a degree makes certain grants and resources inaccessible and has made her feel “less than” sometimes. So in 2024 she enrolled in Howard University’s online degree program. 

Intense stress has taken a toll on her health over the years, and she was hospitalized every semester of her Howard program, for reasons ranging from knee replacement and blood clots to a bout with the very serious Wernicke’s encephalopathy. During her second to last semester at Howard she spent 8 days in the hospital due to this neurological condition caused by thiamine deficiency. The condition impacted her ability to read and write, and she still tried to do her papers and attend class from her hospital bed.

Her husband was also facing health challenges and was in Strong Hospital at the time. They spent their 31st wedding anniversary together in the hospital. She was home recovering for 8 weeks. Helpful professors allowed her to take some tests orally and she managed to complete all her requirements with a 3.9 average in her Howard courses. “It took me a long time to get here,” she said. “This is a 40-year journey. I am ready to explode into the next great evolution.”

She accepts that she may not be able to walk the stage, but her supporters won’t. More than 165 people have donated to the gofundme for her education.  Up until the last second before the deadline, we are going to try to raise this money. $12,000 is a lot, but many hands make light work. After 40 years of trying to get her degree, Mama Mel deserves to walk the stage.

Fundraiser for Melanie Funchess by Michael Boucher : Help Mama Mel Achieve Her Educational Dreams

By Erica Bryant ~ (on Substack: @ericalikesalligators)