Marcus is experiencing the joy of blessing others
Advance Memphis executive director Steve Nash and 2011 graduate Marcus Stone beam after sharing a long, encouraging conversation about Stone’s career progress.
In January, Schneider National asked Advance Memphis graduate Marcus Stone to train its young drivers — a promotion that came with a huge raise.
Each week since February 1, a new trainee has joined him on the road. At one point last month, Stone considered asking his company to stop sending him trainees, given how much patience it requires to teach them. But then he thought about how far he’d come since he started at Advance Memphis in 2011 and about the joy he receives from blessing others who are trying to turn their own lives around.
“(I realized), it’s not about the money,” Stone said. “People actually need my gift and what I do.”
When Stone first walked through our doors, he was 22 and “finding (his) way.” The year prior, he’d been arrested for possession of marijuana and guns. Looking back, he believes he was starting down the path tread by his grandfather (a “drug kingpin”) and his father, who spent his entire childhood locked up.
Advance Memphis offered him a different trail.
Stone remembers feeling lost as a young father and Advance staff member Andrew Vincent repeatedly inviting him into his office to pray. He remembers becoming friends with Vincent and another instructor, Michael Rhodes. And he remembers growing closer to God.
“(Advance) showed me a lot of what the neighborhood didn't show me,” he said. “(The staff) made me feel like family.”
Rhodes recalls Stone sitting up straight in class, focusing on what he was teaching. And he remembers him displaying leadership traits.
“I remember thinking, ‘This guy … will be helping others one day,” Rhodes said.
Vincent remembers being super impressed with Stone’s confidence, intelligence, and motivation to succeed. Since 2011, Stone has continued to call Vincent a couple times each year to ask advice on one matter or another.
“Instead of just going with his instinct, he wants to slow down, and he uses other people to help him slow down instead of making a rash decision,” Vincent said.
After graduating from Advance Memphis’ job-readiness and financial-literacy class (then taught as a combined course), Stone initially struggled to land and retain jobs, given his criminal record and recreational drug use. He “bounced around” professionally, but Vincent remembers him staying optimistic.
In 2018, he started a car detailing business, which proved successful. He remembers using money skills he’d learned at Advance Memphis to get it going. And he loved running it, especially the feeling of knowing he’d done an excellent job.
But in 2024, he needed something new after three deaths — his father, his cousin, and his American Akita, Peddy. He wanted to get away, so he called a friend familiar with truck driving. The friend convinced him it was a career worth pursuing. Five days after the phone call, Stone started a commercial driver’s license course.
Stone received his CDL in October 2024 and started with Schneider two months later. The peacefulness of the road helped him grieve, and he quickly fell in love with the countryside. Often, he’ll drive without any music or other entertainment.
“I come from a fast life, moving in the city. When you get to the road after being like that for so many years … you’re thankful for the peace,” he said.
Stone earned his promotion after just a year thanks to his safety record and mileage (130,000 in 2025).
He plans to drive trucks for many years to come and hopes that he can continue to use it to bless others.
“I come from drug charges and gun charges,” he said. “And if I can make a change and turn it around, others can too.”
