Overview

Schefs is a mission-driven social platform for college students that encourages active and participatory engagement as a catalyst for meaningful interactions, depthful community building, and creative collaboration. On the platform, any student can host or attend a 1hr conversation around a particular topic of their choice via video chat with up to 7 others. Each session includes a distinct and self curated introduction to a specific theme by the host and then moves into an open discussion among all attendees. Schefs creates, heralds, and values a passion-driven information exchange through peer-to-peer learning. It's a network for young enthusiasts, not quite yet experts, to share their knowledge, engage in face to face dialogue with peers, and effectively participate in the creation of an open-source collective intelligence of our generation. In doing so, Schefs pushes up against passive, asynchronous, and shallow interactions on existing social networks. Since launching in February 2020 at Columbia University, we've had 150+ events where nearly 700 participants from over 50 global universities have come together in passionate, active, real-time discussion on topics that range from synthetic biology to performance art to climate justice to racial capitalism and wealth redistribution. It's a deeper and non-hierarchical way for students to meet friends and collaborators and inspire one another through a (budding) social network that values knowledge, passion, contribution, diverse perspectives, and community. Schefs is the defining generational forum of the most thoughtful and considerate young voices coming together to investigate and interrogate today and tomorrow’s most compelling issues.