Saxbys Experiential Learning Cafe Opens on SUNY Plattsburgh Campus

The exclusively student-run café, Saxbys, celebrated its SUNY Plattsburgh grand opening Wednesday where more than 100 campus community members and company VIPs gathered in the new Hawkins Hall space and raised a cup of gourmet cold brew to toast the unique experiential learning model.

The Philadelphia-based chain operates cafes at colleges and universities in nearly a dozen states, including Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio and Georgia as well as New York, each adopting founder and CEO Nick Bayer’s vision of empowering the next generation of leaders who are building confidence and career-ready skills while owning real business outcomes.”

Saxbys maintains that this experiential learning platform, which includes hiring student café CEOs and other management positions, “creates accelerated paths to leadership.”

“One hundred percent of our CEOs graduate from college,” Bayer told those gathered. “Our students advance to leadership roles seven times faster than the national average. Why? Because they have real experience. They’re going to learn critical thinking, emotional intelligence and resilience — exactly what employers are looking for.”

Real Business Outcomes

SUNY Plattsburgh President Alexander Enyedi praised the business-and-education model.

“Our café will be led by a competitively selected student CEO, working alongside student vice presidents and a team of their peers,” Enyedi said. “These students will manage the café operations, lead employees, make financial decisions and take responsibility — including customer satisfaction— for real business outcomes, all while earning academic credit toward their degree.

“This is not a simulation or a classroom exercise. The decisions are real. The responsibilities are real. And because the work is real, the learning will be deeper and incredibly impactful,” he said.

“Saxbys is much more than a new place to get a cup of coffee,” said SUNY Plattsburgh Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success Karen McGrath at the opening. “Saxbys is a student-run café and a learning laboratory. And I think that is what makes it so special.

“One of the things I love about our campus is that learning happens everywhere — and in so many different forms. It happens in classrooms and labs, certainly. But it also happens when students work together on a project, take on a leadership role, solve a problem, navigate a challenging situation, or simply sit down with someone and have a conversation,” she said.

Saxbys SUNY Plattsburgh’s student CEO is Ashlee Morris, a senior business administration and entrepreneurship major from Albany, who spent a week at the company’s Philadelphia headquarters learning the ropes of being a student CEO.

Student team members, including the student CEO, are mentored and supported by the Saxbys team, which will work with Cardinal Way Culinary & Co., SUNY Plattsburgh’s dining service partner through Sodexo, on responsibilities that will include ordering supplies, managing inventory and more.

Competitive Application Process

Students who are selected for leadership roles are selected after a competitive application process. Students receive course credit while also getting paid.

“This has been such a unique experience, especially getting to be part of something from the very beginning,” Morris said. “Our team has put so much time and effort into training. We’ve had early mornings, long training days, and a lot of new things to learn, but everyone has continued to show up and put in the work.”

Morris said her vision is for Saxbys “to become a cornerstone of campus, a place where students can stop in before class, grab a cold brew with a friend, sit down and get some work done or just have somewhere to go during a busy day,” she said.

“I want it to be a place that feels welcoming and connected to the campus community. This connects directly to Saxbys’ mission to make life better,” Morris said. “That doesn’t have to mean doing something huge. Sometimes, making life better is as simple as remembering someone’s order, having a good conversation or

For his part, Bayer thanked Enyedi, McGrath, College Auxiliary Services Executive Director Catherine Keleher as well as SUNY Plattsburgh’s dining service partner, Sodexo, for their support in becoming the first SUNY school to partner with his company.

It also represents the first partnership between Saxbys and Sodexo — a significant first for the Philadelphia company and the international food and services conglomerate.

The experiential learning platform “is what makes this partnership so special,” said Ellen Wilson, president and chief operating officer, Sodexo U.S. Campus.

“Together, (we) are bringing education and the campus experience together in a very tangible way. We are creating a space that will serve the campus community while also investing directly in the growth and development of students.”

McGrath concurred.

“To our students: I hope you use this space — and I hope you make it your own,” she said. “Come here to learn. Come here to work. Come here to meet someone new. Come here for the coffee. Come here when you need a break.

“And maybe, along the way, discover something you didn't know you could do — because learning doesn't end when you walk out of a classroom. It happens in the spaces where we gather, in the experiences we take on, in the relationships we build, and in the opportunities we give ourselves to learn by doing,” she said.

— Story, Photos by Associate Director of Communications Gerianne Downs