With interests stretching from fitness to the holiday season, there is one common thread that ties them all together: a love for fostering human connections.
Assistant principal Mr. Thomas McLaughlin finds fulfillment in deepening the interactions he has with people in everything he does. At Haven, it is important to him to be the person that students and teachers alike can talk to, creating an environment for open communication.
“I don’t want to be their boss. I am their boss, they know that and I know that, but I just want to be someone they can turn to,” McLaughlin said.
Upon leaving Upper Darby High School and starting at Haven, English teacher Mr. Robert Zakrzewski recounts being guided and welcomed into his role by McLaughlin.
“Things that I did in my old job didn’t really work here, and I felt kind of out of place,” Zakrzewski said. “Mr. McLaughlin was one of the first people to help me feel comfortable and at home, helping me get situated.”
In McLaughlin’s previous role as a special education teacher in Philadelphia, he saw the impact of getting to connect with students outside of teaching the required curriculum.
“When they came back [from lunch] with food in their bellies, I would put the Christmas lights on and just read to them for half an hour because some of them never had anybody read to them,” McLaughlin said. “We would eventually get back to our schoolwork, and I saw scores go up just from reading to them.”
Looking back on his experience helping students in need, McLaughlin realized that one of his own high school teachers helped him discover the importance of connections and lending a helping hand to others.
“I called him to thank him,” McLaughlin said. “He said, ‘What do you call me for?’ And I said, we were able to help a kid because of what you taught me. There’s all different teaching strategies and buzzwords that educators use for this stuff, but really it just comes down to making connections first.”
Through working out alongside others, McLaughlin finds it meaningful to be free of distractions and converse with others when their guards are down.
“That time allows you to just focus on breathing, working out the energy of the people around you,” McLaughlin said. “I feel like as I’ve gotten older, with cell phones and on-demand TV shows, that connection is something that people are missing.”
These interactions encourage vulnerability, and with a simple conversation, McLaughlin can quickly turn a fellow gym member into a friend.
“You have that connection so that when you’re not working out, you see that person in the hallway and feel like you can talk to somebody,” McLaughlin said. “You can turn to that person and say, ‘Hey, I trust you enough, because we do this together in the morning or we work out after school.’”
McLaughlin’s love of the holidays and family trips to Disney stem from the magic of seeing people live in the moment and go out of their way to be kind.
“When you’re [at Disney], the outside world doesn’t matter,” McLaughlin said. “It’s literally about the magic of the place, so that’s a little bit of magic left in the world.”
To bring connections like this to Haven, McLaughlin organizes luncheons and grilled cheese days for the faculty in the winter, bringing about a sense of community.
“He does a lot of things that bring comfort. It’s a long year together and we spend a lot of time together, but he brings a lot of comfort to that in very unique ways,” Zakrzewski said.
Each small action that McLaughlin takes to create connections has given him long-lasting relationships with colleagues and students alike, ones that could not have been built without reaching out.
“I just got invited to one of their weddings and they’re sending me birth announcements, and it’s things like that that you just can’t quantify; that’s what it’s all about,” McLaughlin said.
