Are you someone with a couple of spare hours on a weekday morning, once a month, who enjoys learning, especially if the teacher is a noted professor? If the answer is yes, then Breakfast University may be perfect for you.
Starting next January at the Chappaqua Performing Art Center, this new program will deliver a monthly, 90-minute presentation – graced with coffee and pastries when the doors open in the morning – on an appealing topic. The core idea is quite unique. Every college and university has at least one star professor that most students know about and want to take a class from. Breakfast University seeks them out at campuses throughout the country and invites them to present a specially designed talk of interest to a general audience. There’s no homework, exams, or studying though, adult students-for-a-day earn an “A” just by registering to attend!
It’s the brainchild of Steven Schragis and Kevin Brennan who ran the extremely successful One Day University series. “One Day University was usually most of the day with a number of different professors” Schragis explained. “This program is different in that it’s more of a continuity series. It comes every month, with a different professor each month on an interesting subject.” Breakfast University first launched at the New York Historical museum at the start of this year, as part of their celebration of America’s 250th birthday,
According to Schragis “The best way to describe their demographic is ‘intellectually curious’. Everyone who attends feels this will be an interesting way to spend some time once a month and be exposed to professors who are absolutely remarkable for their abilities to hold people’s interest.” When asked how the nation’s most gifted professors are sourced, he replied, “It’s easier than you think,” and described a process of asking students on campuses, and using online surveys, and published articles. When it comes to the subject of each talk, “The method is you call up the professor, you tell them how you found them and then say, ‘We want to show off how talented you are, what do you think you should talk about for a little more than an hour?’”
The Chappaqua series begins on January 17, 2027, with Catherine Sanderson of Amherst College, talking about “The Science of Happiness: What Makes Us Happy, What Doesn’t and Why.” Over the subsequent 5 months, topics will include music, history, literature, and more.
While Schragis, who grew up not far from Chappaqua, is pleased to be launching there, Breakfast University will also launch at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ later this year and there are plans for three additional locations to follow. The Chappaqua marketing campaign and registration portal will launch shortly at the BU website www.BreakfastUniversity.com.
