How Kelly Pilotte Went Back to School to Realize Her Son’s Dream

Kelly Pilotte '25 walked the Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) Commencement stage in her son's sneakers.

“It was huge for me to come here today and walk at Commencement because I started school to honor my son, Michael Stephen Boyd, sergeant in the Marine Corps, who I lost to overdose," she said. "Going back to school at 50 was because of him.”

Pilotte, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran herself, was honoring Boyd in more ways than one. He had dreamed of opening an addiction recovery center — a dream she took on after losing him.

“I wasn't able to do that with him back in the day, because I was still working full time, and I had a child still in school," she said. "So when I lost him, the first thing I decided to do is that I didn't want to sit around and cry and mourn him. I wanted to do something good for people like him.”

She resolved to build his recovery center herself.

“I just didn't know how to do it,” she said. “I started step by step.”

Getting to Work

The New Hampshire native wasted no time putting her plan into action. First, she launched the Michael Stephen Boyd Memorial Foundation and endowed a scholarship in Boyd's name for community college students.

Then she mapped out what it would take to open the recovery center, starting with an associate in addiction counseling at another university (note: SNHU does not currently offer an associate in addiction counseling) before enrolling at SNHU to earn her bachelor's in business administration with a concentration in nonprofit management.

“I chose (SNHU) because they offered the (business administration with a concentration in) nonprofit management degree, and it was close to home, and I could actually go and visit the campus even though I was an online student,” said Pilotte.

She said her advisor, Michael Solis, kept her going throughout the program when challenges came up.

“He called me, encouraged me along the way,” she said. “It pushed me to keep going.”

What’s Next

Pilotte is already applying what she's learned. As she continues to work toward the recovery center, she does outreach with people experiencing homelessness, helping them access care and navigate personal needs like obtaining an ID.

“Knowing how the system works has really helped me be able to help them,” she said.

Her degree also gave her the tools to run what she'd already built. “Now I know how to run the nonprofit that I started since I have a degree in (business administration with a concentration in) nonprofit management,” she said.

And Pilotte isn't done. She plans to continue her education with a master’s degree. “Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to write grants and get some money to open up that recovery center for him,” she said.

Pilotte said her goals haven't changed since she started, just how she sees them. “I just feel like they're more achievable now than they were before I started,” she said. “Because I know so much more than I did before I started.”

For Pilotte, earning her degree was worth it. “The degree just came with the knowledge,” she said. “And the knowledge was so worth it, because I'm going to be able to help so many other people by learning what I learned here at SNHU.”

Rebecca Cahill '26 is a content marketing assistant and writer at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). She completed her bachelor’s in creative writing and English at SNHU and is now pursuing a master's in English and creative writing. Based in Ohio, she has also written for FreshWater Cleveland and The Land and serves on the board of Literary Cleveland. When she’s not writing, you'll most likely find her nose in a book, dogs at her side, surrounded by way too many houseplants. Connect with her on LinkedIn.