Elitsa Koleva

McLaughlin poses in her office.

The bell rings and the hallways flood with students, their laughter joining in with a chorus of sounds. Surrounded by the constant bustle of high school, it can be difficult to notice the note of nervousness in someone’s laugh, the slight frown on someone’s face. But amidst this buzz, there is one person that seeks to piece these nuances together, finding the sense of connection that may be missing amongst students: guidance counselor Tracy McLaughlin.

Finding the connections that are missing between students requires a deep intuition, something which McLaughlin has gained after working with students throughout most of her life. After 22 years at WA, McLaughlin will be retiring at the end of this year, proud of the work that she has done to form a more open and inclusive community.

It has been a goal of McLaughlin’s to find outlets through which students can feel seen. During her time at WA, McLaughlin has been active in advising clubs that may be fading out or in need of a substitute adviser including Best Buddies, Human Rights Club, and Mandarin Club. Just last year, McLaughlin also helped form the Black and LatinX Club after noticing that some students were not feeling seen in the school community.

“Black and LatinX Club was started because I’ve noticed for years that students could be in the building without seeing another person that looked like them the whole day,” McLaughlin said. “So we wanted to help people build connections, and those are the kind of clubs I’m drawn to: where are the kids? What’s needed? What are the missing pieces? Who is not finding a club that they can relate to?”

Being a guidance counselor has been the best of both worlds for McLaughlin; having worked in the mental health field as a social worker for ten years and later in admissions at Boston University, McLaughlin has had a multitude of experiences in her professional career that have guided her to the position of a guidance counselor, even if working at a high school was not something she intended to do. 

“If I was in high school and someone said ‘you’re going to be working in a high school’, I’d be like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’. But that’s exactly why I like working in it, because for me, high school was challenging in a lot of ways and so I like the fact that I could be there for someone,” McLaughlin said.

Today, McLaughlin’s office space is often crowded with students seeking to ask a question or simply in search of a break from the overwhelming environment around them. For many of her students, her office has become like a sanctuary.

“She’s wonderful with students, and she always has kids in her office. Even on a day she’s absent, kids will be in her office just hanging out,” senior Maddie Poirier said. “She’s super welcoming [and] she’s always looking to help people. She’s never in one spot, which I love, and I think it’s so reflective of her character.”

McLaughlin’s experience working in mental health and the college admissions process has established her as someone who students, as well as her colleagues, can always talk to. For guidance counselor Susan Lynch, who has worked with McLaughlin for over 20 years, it is McLaughlin’s infectious positivity and ability to make people laugh within the guidance office that has made her a vital part of the staff. 

“[McLaughlin] is probably one of the most student centered people. […] I think, with any decision she makes or anything she does, she always has her students’ best interests at heart, and she infuses humor [in everything],” Lynch said. “She has these really funny one liners that I would never think to say, but she’ll just say something so funny, and I think, ‘wow, I wish I had thought of that.’”

While the decision to retire is always a difficult one to make, McLaughlin feels good about opening this next chapter of her life. In fact, she plans on staying active outside of WA by volunteering and involving herself in organizations that may resonate with her. Looking back, one of the biggest things she will miss is having that window into students’ lives and hearing their stories.

“I’ve just been fortunate to be a part of people’s lives [so] I will probably miss talking to students the most, just keeping young listening to your world,” McLaughlin said. “A door is going to be shut to a world, and that’s okay, but I will [definitely] miss that world.”