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The fourth virtual West Haven Town Hall of the year occurred on Tuesday, June 1. The University’s worked closely with the Mayor’s Office to host this important event. MAC is a collaborative, student-driven task force founded in 2015 to strengthen town-grown relations between the University of New Haven and the West Haven Community.

I served as the lead moderator at the event, directing the questions posed by the audience from multiple social media platforms to the mayor. This was the first town hall I have ever directed, so I was a bit nervous going into it, as it is a different experience to actually be leading the town hall yourself rather than watching it.

As I logged onto my Zoom account, I started to prepare my introductory statement and get ready to address the audience. My stomach was in knots, but I knew that even if I made a mistake, I had classmates and advisers there to help me.

It seemed like such a long time at first, but the time flew by. There were so many questions that West Haven residents had about what is going on in their community, and the mayor was answering all of their questions very effectively, making all of the audience members feel like their voices were heard.

By the end of it, I was relieved of all of my worries. The West Haven Town Hall was a success, and everyone was happy. Our MAC team did an amazing job, and everyone was very dedicated and well prepared.

I would like to give a special thank you to the students who helped organize June’s Town Hall, including Killian Gruber ’22, and MAC’s adviser Dr. Chris Haynes.

The that MAC will help moderate will be on Wednesday, July 21st, from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. MAC encourages all students and residents of West Haven to attend.

Cassandra Napoli ’24 is an international affairs major at the University of New Haven and a member of the University’s Mayor’s Advisory Commission.