How a childhood encounter shaped one student's destiny
How many of us know what we want to be when we’re 5 years old?
For Hallie McLaughlin, a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, it was a no-brainer. She was going to be a social worker, just like her mom. But what really inspired McLaughlin was meeting the social worker assigned to her family when her brother, Quinn, was adopted.
Sometimes the most extraordinary coincidences begin with the most ordinary moments.
Quinn was 9 months old when the McLaughlin family adopted him from South Korea. Throughout the process, a social worker would pay regular visits to their home to make sure the family was well-suited and prepared to adopt baby Quinn.
McLaughlin remembered a kind and pretty woman visiting and would get so excited when she came over. Even her younger sister, Molly, who was only 3 at the time, remembered this warm and caring social worker.
Fast forward 17 years later. It’s May 2024 and McLaughlin is on the phone with her mother reviewing her class schedule. McLaughlin mentioned she got an email from the assistant dean of field education and external relationships—Nicole Parker.
“Wait. Who? I know that name,” her mom said. There was silence, and then her mom exclaimed, “That’s the woman who did Quinn’s adoption!”
“I’m in the middle of campus, screaming at my mom on the phone. This is crazy! What are the odds,” McLaughlin said. “I got chills right away; so did my mom.”
McLaughlin proceeded to email Parker, asking her if she remembered an adoption in 2008 of a little baby boy from South Korea.
“Oh, 100%! I started crying,” Parker said. “I literally said out loud while reading this, ‘Of course I remember you!’”
Parker remembered McLauglin fondly as this bright, blue-eyed little girl who would peek her head around the corner, sit down next to her and Quinn and show off her Barbie dolls.
Over the years, Parker often thought about the families she helped with adoptions but never dreamed of being reunited with a family member 17 years later.
McLaughlin and Parker later met on campus and reminisced over coffee about that time so many years ago and how that encounter had such a lasting impact on McLaughlin’s career aspirations.
“Oh, my heart is so warm,” Parker said about the influence she’s had on McLaughlin’s decision to pursue social work as well. “I have little flutters in my heart.”
As for McLaughlin, she had her doubts about pursuing a master’s degree, but when she reconnected with Parker, she knew she was supposed to be here.
“Anytime I have doubts about social work or school, it instantly goes away when I think about how I got here,” McLaughlin said. “This connection isn’t random. I’m supposed to be here, supposed to be doing this work. Just like Nicole did for us, I want to help make families whole.”
