A master class in resilience
For years, she dreamed of saving enough to purchase a house for her mother, only to wind up without a home herself. Her mother, while battling cancer, abruptly kicked her out of the apartment they shared following a mental health episode in 2024.
Just like that, she went from serving as her mother’s primary caretaker to facing off with her across a courtroom.
“I had my car, my cat and about half of my stuff,” Belanger says. “I basically felt like I had nowhere to go.”
Juggling a college course load and a full-time job, Belanger found herself adrift. She wasn’t sure how she would find housing or afford food, let alone stay enrolled in school.
The thing about those dramatic blink-of-an-eye changes, though, is that they can swing for the better just as quickly as they do for the worse.
For the first time, Belanger — who had spent most of her 22 years taking care of the loved ones around her — faced the reality of being the one who needed care. She reached out to UNH for assistance, and the response, in her words, was “life changing.”
Almost immediately, she had a place to stay. She had access to food and other critical resources. Through UNH’s Student Basic Needs Program, fueled in part by donor support and built to provide housing assistance, food and financial help for students facing unexpected challenges, Belanger received a variety of help necessary to get her back on her feet.
Now, she’s living on campus and doing well academically as a psychology and music double major, working toward a career as a certified music therapist.
“I could not be more grateful. That support is the difference between me being able to graduate and me not being able to stay in school,” Belanger says. “I feel like this is the first time in my life I can actually see growth and healing. It’s been incredible to grow toward supporting myself. It’s proven to me how resilient I am. I don’t even know how to describe it; it’s such a beautiful feeling. I can feel myself healing.”
That growth and healing felt unattainable just over a year ago, when her mother had what Belanger describes as a “mental health crisis,” throwing Belanger out of the apartment they shared. She claimed Belanger had tried to hurt her and was stealing her financial assets, even though the apartment was in Belanger’s name — paid for with much of the money she had saved for college.
Belanger’s mother took her to court, with one court date overlapping with UNH finals that year. The court ruled in Belanger’s favor, but it wasn’t until after the court settlement that Belanger was able to retrieve more of her personal items from the apartment.
A first-generation college student, Belanger was committed to completing her degree, and so after talking with her boyfriend and professors, she connected with Patty Mathison, basic needs coordinator in the UNH Dean of Students office. Belanger describes Mathison as the primary reason she was “able to stay sane” throughout the ensuing process.
Mathison helped find space on campus for Belanger right away and also connected her to the TRIO Scholars program, which offers resources for first-generation college students. She set her up with resources to help with food and financial support.
Says Mathison: “When we first started working together, Mikaela was very hesitant to ask for help — she was worried about being a burden and feeling like she had to figure everything out on her own. … Over time I have watched Mikaela grow in confidence and take time to heal and recognize her own strengths and abilities.”
Music has always been a huge part of Belanger’s life, and the challenges she went through inspired her to pursue a profession that would allow her to help others — she opted for the career path that combined those two passions in music therapy.
Belanger credits UNH, Mathison and the donors who help make basic needs support accessible to so many students with not only guiding her out of the most difficult time of her life, but with helping her find the courage to truly reach her full potential.
“I would say thank you to those donors. They might not even know the full impact that a simple, small donation can have. Those resources allowed me to actually have a chance — without them, I wouldn’t be able to go to college, wouldn’t be able to continue in my career, wouldn’t even have a path or anywhere to go,” she says. “That support has literally changed my life. Because of it, I was able to go to college and have a chance to become something that I knew I was always capable of.”