Michaela Marshall has learned a lot of things over the past six years at Marshall University.
After earning dual undergraduate degrees in Health Sciences and Psychology, she knows her share about the functions of the human body and mind. And as a graduate student receiving her master’s degree this month in Mental Health Counseling, she’s beyond ready to launch a career that equips others with mental health tools to cope with challenges.
One thing she’s learned from experience rather than a syllabus, however, is the life-changing importance of being real, even when things aren’t perfect.
In fact, especially when things aren’t perfect.
“You don’t see anyone introducing themselves and saying, ‘Here is everything I’ve ever done wrong.’ We are in a society where success gets the glory, and I’m the same way,” she said.
But being real about her imperfections and setbacks has made all the difference in her college experience — even though, for Michaela, being real has been hard. Her childhood was filled with abuse. Her college experience has been impacted by an off-and-on battle with cancer. She’s the kind of person who doesn’t have strong family ties for support but never wanted pity or special treatment. She just wanted to earn her way on her own.
However, her years at Marshall University have taught her that that’s not exactly how folks roll amongst the Herd. They go through things together.
“What made Marshall attractive to me was what it brought out of me. I had faculty that looked at me and said, ‘Hey, what makes you special? How can we cultivate that? What does success even mean to you?’” Michaela said. “I’ve had a kind of mentorship here that is so invaluable.”
It started with Student Support Services as an incoming freshman, and it hasn’t stopped. Bonnie Bailey, director of Marshall’s Student Support Services TRIO Program, and staff have an open-door policy that makes all the difference, Michaela said.
“My freshman year, it was do or die. It was: ‘You have to get these scholarships or you can’t go to school.’ And Bonnie was like, ‘I will show you the on ramp, but you have to go.’”
So she went.
“I’ve worked in so many offices at Marshall,” Michaela said. “I’ve been a FAM (Friend at Marshall) peer mentor, I’ve worked in the Orientation office, I’ve worked with all the WOW (Week of Welcome) stuff, I’ve worked as a GA (with Marcie Simms, vice president of Student Affairs), I’ve worked Parents and Family Weekend, now I work in the Counseling Center.”
She found a support system.
“I have spent holidays with Bonnie and her family, professors and peers. I started going to church when I was going to college. My support system has to be Marshall because that is where I learned how to be myself,” Michaela said. “I really flourished for the first time when I was given the space to grow here.”
She made new friends on the path to success, but what she learned along the way was something that caused her to change her major. She had a painful, eye-opening conversation with a friend who had all the outward characteristics of happiness and incredible success, but was considering suicide.
“That taught me that sometimes, the brain is a valuable organ that we under-appreciate,” she said. “I went that next week and said, ‘Hey, I’m switching to Psychology.’ … I come from a very sad story. Everybody goes to help those kids. I want to help the kid who has everything that’s afraid to get help.”
She did an internship in the Counseling Center and loved working with college students.
“Can I just help the people who are going to be the next Brad? Can I just invest in the freshmen who are actually crashing out about finals right now?”
In the midst of exploring the new field, Michaela was experiencing another trauma of her own. She was diagnosed with a form of cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, in the summer of 2023. She was immediately placed on a list for a liver transplant and began a 12-week chemotherapy treatment plan.
“Did the first (chemo treatment), not too bad. Did the second one, still not too bad. Did the third one, and I was driving back and thinking, ‘Man, I’m feeling really tired.’ I pulled over and slept for 12 hours at the Teays Valley Target,” she recalled. “That’s when I was like, ‘Shoot. I cannot drive myself anymore, but who am I going to ask? I don’t have anybody.’”
The answer came when she met up for coffee with fellow Marshall student Mallory Hamm, who Michaela discovered had a childhood best friend with leukemia. Mallory immediately started asking insightful questions and has since become a lifeline. The person who will be there.
“I didn’t ask her to get involved — she just did,” Michaela said.
Mallory started driving her to appointments, became her power of attorney, and stayed with Michaela at the Pittsburgh hospital where she had a liver transplant.
By that point, Michaela’s illness had started showing.
“People started to know, and I was really insecure. When you don’t have a support system, you always have put your best foot forward,” she said. “I did not want anyone to know. I prided myself on not letting anyone know. I wanted to do great on my own, not get the cancer pity card.”
After her surgery, she had some months with no evidence of disease and was thought to be cancer-free, but a recurrence was discovered in the spring of 2025. It was hepatocellular carcinoma, but this time in her lungs. Because of the spread, it was immediately considered Stage 4 cancer, for which Michaela is still undergoing treatment.
How do you get through school while doing chemo?
“Thankfully for me, there’s a thing called compassion, and a lot of people have it,” she said, adding that on the first day of class, she’s sent an email to professors explaining her situation so that projects and deadlines could be adjusted to accommodate her treatments.
“I had accommodations from professors, who were awesome and incredible, and my peers were kind and caring,” she said. “My internship was beyond accommodating and let me go in my own lane and learn how to be a counselor and supported me and encouraged me and mourned the losses and cared when I had a hard day.”
As a graduate assistant in Student Affairs, she was under the mentorship of Marcie Simms, who not only helped her grow professionally, but brought her groceries. And then there was her mentorship from Marshall President Brad D. Smith, whom she befriended on the day of his investiture, which happened to be her birthday, and has been a constant source of encouragement to her.
“If I had to pick somebody that has made me feel like cancer doesn’t matter, it’s him,” she said.
“I’ve just taken what it means to say, ‘I’m a daughter of Marshall’ to the max. If you want deep community at Marshall, it doesn’t start with your best foot forward. It starts with, ‘I don’t know.’ It starts with being vulnerable. If you are willing to crack the armor that we wear all the time, you’re going to thrive here.”
