Students · 49th Annual Breakfast
Be in the room where mental health policy happens.
Every year since 1978, North Carolina's legislators, state health leaders, clinicians, and advocates have gathered for one morning to talk about the future of mental health in our state. If you're studying social work, psychology, public health, nursing, or public policy, this is your field, live and unscripted. The 49th Breakfast has a place for you in it.
Date
Saturday, February 13, 2027
Where
Embassy Suites, Cary, NC
Scale
600+ attendees, statewide livestream
48
Years of advocacy
600+
Expected attendees
50+
Legislators & state officials
28
NC counties represented
Volunteer · Media · Advocacy
Three ways to get involved.
Pick whichever fits your semester. You can sign up for more than one, and nothing on the form commits you to anything yet.
Morning of Feb 13
Event-Day Volunteer
Help run check-in and badge printing, guide guests, and keep a 600-person event moving. You'll work directly alongside the planning committee.
You'll network with legislators, DHHS leadership, and the executives shaping North Carolina's health systems.
Before & during the event
Media Team
Capture photo and video, create social content, and support a professional livestream production. Walk away with real portfolio pieces.
You'll build your resume with statewide advocacy experience that stands out in grad school and job applications.
This fall & spring
Campus Ambassador
Spread the word at your school: share the event with classmates, student orgs, and faculty, and help your campus show up in force.
You'll make a difference for the communities and clients you'll spend your career serving.
A closer look
What a Campus Ambassador actually does.
Your job is to make sure no student at your school who cares about mental health policy finds out about the Breakfast after it happened. You are the reason your campus shows up.
Your target: 10 students from your campus in the room on February 13. The work is bursty rather than steady, roughly 5 hours a week during the active push periods in early fall and January, and much lighter in between.
How the year runs
-
Fall: build the base
- Bring the Breakfast to your student orgs: NASW student chapter, Psych Club, public health association, nursing student association, NAMI on Campus, anywhere advocacy-minded students already gather.
- Get it into the channels students actually read, like your program GroupMe, Slack, or department listserv.
- Ask your department to run it in the weekly student newsletter.
- Post the flyer on department bulletin boards and in student lounges.
- Tell us which faculty we should know. Professors who teach policy, advocacy, or community practice are the fastest path to a whole class attending.
-
January: the registration push
- Move people from "that sounds interesting" to actually registered. This is where most of the work happens.
- Get people to sign up together. Students are far more likely to follow through when they know classmates are going too.
- Post on your own social media using the graphics we send you.
-
Event week
- Send a final reminder to everyone who said yes, and confirm who is coming.
-
February 13: event day
- Show up, welcome the students from your school, and introduce them to people worth meeting.
What you walk away with
- A statewide outreach campaign you ran yourself, for a 600-person policy event.
- Real relationships with faculty and leadership in your own program.
- A morning spent with legislators and DHHS leadership.
- A resume line and a grad school essay, not just a volunteer shift.
- A free ticket to the Breakfast.
What we give you
- The student flyer as a shareable PDF.
- Save-the-date and social graphics sized for Instagram and Stories.
- Sample social posts you can copy and adapt.
- An email template for reaching out to a professor or org president.
- A direct line to the planning committee whenever you need something.
Before you sign up
Questions students ask us.
Volunteers arrive early to set up check-in and badge printing, the program runs through the morning, and there's breakdown afterward. Plan on about 8 hours total. We'll send exact call times and a run of show a few weeks out.
No. Students who volunteer, join the media team, or serve as campus ambassadors receive a free ticket to the Breakfast.
No. Event-day volunteering and campus ambassador roles need no background at all, just reliability. For the media team, we do want to see something you've made, whether that's an Instagram account you run, a portfolio, or a class project.
In many cases yes, though it depends on your program. Say so on the form and we'll work with you on the documentation your school needs.
Business casual. You'll be meeting legislators and state health leaders, so dress the way you would for an interview in your field. Comfortable shoes, since volunteers are on their feet.
Students travel in from across North Carolina for the morning. Plan on arranging your own transportation to Cary.
Media team spots are limited and fill first, so reach out early. Event-day volunteer and campus ambassador signups stay open longer, but the earlier you tell us, the better we can place you.
Absolutely. Students are welcome to attend as guests. Select "I'd just like to attend the Breakfast" on the form and we'll send you registration details.
Sign up
Tell us how you'd like to be involved.
Two minutes, and you're not committing to anything yet. We'll follow up with next steps. Media team spots are limited, so reach out early.
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An invitation to North Carolina's universities
Bring your students to the table where mental health policy is made.
Your students are North Carolina's next generation of clinicians, social workers, and public health leaders. There is no classroom substitute for a morning spent alongside the legislators, DHHS leadership, and agency executives who shape the systems your graduates will work in. Students have long been part of the Breakfast, and this year we are inviting programs across the state to take part in a larger, more organized way.
01
Share the student flyer with your department so students can join as volunteers, media team members, or campus ambassadors.
02
Encourage faculty to attend and connect their coursework to live policy conversations.
03
Tell us who we should know: student leaders and organizations who care about mental health advocacy.
Advocacy is taught best in the room where it happens.