Students living at 92Y’s de Hirsch Residence enjoy a wide array of amenities including weekly maid service, a kitchen and laundry room on each floor, 24-hour security, use of the Y’s Buttenwieser Library, free wi-fi Internet access, close proximity to museums and Central Park, discounted gym membership and reduced or free admission to many of the Y’s concerts and lectures. Sounds like a typical campus experience, right? Close. As an added benefit of living at the Y, it’s not unusual to run into some of the great minds, artists and big time celebs who appear here regularly.

By way of example, the de Hirsch student residents pictured above got a special treat when Tom Cruise recently appeared for the Y’s Reel Pieces film series to screen Valkyrie and stopped for an autograph/photograph session. (You can read more about the evening on New York magazine’s Vulture blog: “So how was Valkyrie? It was actually very good!”) In fact, students and fans alike basked in the star’s shine as evidenced in the video below.

So who’s on tap in the New Year? John Turturro, Malcolm Gladwell, Joan Osborne, Salman Rushdie, Arianna Huffington, Robert Rubin, Sidney Lumet, Oliver Sacks...and folks, that’s just in January! Check out all lectures at 92Y on the Upper East Side.