Conor Webb ES ’28 never imagined he would attend or even apply to a place like Yale. Nobody from his public school in Albany, New York, had ever gone to Yale, so it felt silly to even let himself wish for it. But mentors and loved ones encouraged Webb to dream big.

“When I was a junior in high school, my mom and I were planning a visit to Connecticut to tour some colleges,” Webb says. “She said we should stay the night in New Haven. I thought, ‘Wait, what’s in New Haven?’”

It was a gorgeous spring day, and despite his best efforts, Webb was immediately enamored with Yale’s campus, residential college system, and educational opportunities. “I was almost frustrated that my mother had given me the ability to dream about a place like Yale.”

Everything changed for Webb when he was accepted early and offered the financial aid he needed to make Yale work.

“Yale extended extraordinary generosity making this education accessible to me and my family,” Webb says. “I’m not sure where I would’ve been without that support, without the donors who choose to use their resources to help students like me.”

A ‘Frictionless Adjustment’

Webb attended Bulldog Days, Yale’s three-day admitted students program. “I was linked to a host who was then a first-year and is now a rising senior. He was intimately involved with local politics, just like me. We bonded immediately, and he was a good representative of the Yale student body—his care, respect, kindness, and how self-sacrificial he was with his time. We’re still best friends.”

Webb also credits FOCUS on New Haven, one of Yale’s pre-orientation programs, with enabling his “frictionless adjustment” to campus.

“The program linked us with community service in the city, which allowed me to get to know even more students invested in civic engagement and really picture myself working on the same local and state issues I advocated for in Albany,” Webb says. “Between people I met on that program and my Bulldog Days host, I knew I already had a support system at Yale before classes even started. It helped make the transition seamless.”

Now, Webb is a FOCUS leader, helping incoming first-years benefit from the program that helped him feel at home at Yale.

Making a Difference

Webb found his passion for political advocacy at a young age. In tenth grade, he founded a local chapter of March for Our Lives, a youth-led anti-gun violence movement that emerged in the wake of the Parkland massacre.

“I come from a generation of school lockdowns and have grown up with an omnipresent drumbeat of never-ending mass shootings,” Webb says. “It made me want to make a change.”

Back home in Albany, Webb has advocated for local and state legislation on safe firearm storage, gun buyback programs, trauma-informed lockdown drills, and gun suicide awareness. Now, as vice president of Yale College Democrats, Webb pushes for similar reforms in Connecticut, while also working on nonpartisan efforts like voter registration campaigns and community service.

“The same people who made me believe I could make a difference on this issue—my family, my mentors—are the ones who made me believe that Yale was within reach,” Webb says. “Now, Yale is helping me pursue the change I want to see in the world.”