EDUCATORS

It is our pleasure once again to roll out the welcome mat for our local Holland middle schools and invite students to the annual local Rotary Leaders for the 21st Century spring conference.

This year’s conference will be our 25th annual event. And, after pandemic shutdowns and seeking input from school counselors, we continue to improve parts of the program to reduce the work required of your staff for student selection!

This year — 2026 — our sponsors, Macatawa Area Coordinating Council and Lake Michigan Credit Union return to provide the generous support, enabling this three-day (two overnights in the dorm) program to support increased student participants, and improve our program delivery.

We Welcome you here as you learn more about the program and its benefits in building the young people you teach as Leaders for the 21st Century.

This information and registration website should provide you with all of what you may already know as educators about the Rotary Leaders for the 21st Century program. This also provides an intro about the program for Middle School counselors and teachers to provide an ongoing resource beyond the conference for leadership and development during the course of the school year.

Early each year, we contact middle school counselors with Leader Nomination cards for them to hand out to selected students. This card not only provides a description of the program, but also provides a Parent-directed information side complete with QR code that will allow students and parents to register for this annual Leadership Conference. This Nomination card is designed to streamline the registration process and take some of the demand for student selection and registration off of the participating schools staff.

We are reserving several slots this year for all our area incoming seventh and eighth graders.
We are hoping you and/or your middle school teachers will join us at least for some portion of the event on the Hope College campus June 10-12, 2026. All of our counselors are former 21st Century Leaders from your schools who have been through this program, understand the impact it made on them, and keep coming back. They have experienced the value of this training and are passionate about sharing it with current middle schoolers by volunteering their time.

Remember, this is a scholarship event for students selected by their schools at no cost to them, fully paid by the Rotary Clubs of Holland: with an additional grants and community sponsorships from the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council, Lake Michigan Credit Union, and from Rotary District 6290 (West Michigan and Northern Ontario). The scholarship includes all meals and overnight dorm accommodations in addition to the conference materials.

Holland Rotary and Rotaract Clubs thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your ongoing support. We highly value this partnership between the area schools and Rotary. Please contact us with any additional ideas about how we can best work together for our youth and community

Sincerely,
The Rotary Leaders for the 21st Century

“Principals”

Anne Whittlesey
Holland After-Hours Rotary, Educator, Director

Ed Swart, PhD
Rotary Club of Holland, Director Emeritus, Counselor

Assistant “Principals”

Kate Fornaratto, Educator, Curriculum

Linda Falstad, Grant Coordinator & Fundraising

Jim White, Educator, Fundraising

David Beattie, Hope College Liaison, Communication