Rotary Student Program History

In 2007, the first Rotary Student Program launched in the United States, through the Rotary Club of St. Joseph-Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, Michigan, Rotary District 6360, USA.

For many years, it had been tradition that the Rotary Club hosted high school students at lunch. The objective of the hosting, was to share the virtues of Rotary and the Community and Global Service Initiatives of the club. The program was called “Rotary Student Guests” and in 2006, it was run by “Student Guests” Chairman, Janet Zielke.

One day in 2007, Rotarian Jackie Huie, suggested to her friend, Janet, that the club do more for students. Her suggestion was to provide a service to students, by utilizing the Rotary network. The idea was to ask students about their dream careers and help them make connections with local professionals with expertise in those areas. The bigger vision was that every young person in the world had the opportunity to connect with a professional in a dream career. The vision was well received and Janet suggested Jackie “run with it,” taking it as far as it could go. The word “Guests” was dropped from the title and the idea of the “Rotary Student Program” was launched.

To kick off the new program Jackie recruited two well-connected Rotarians to provide recommendations - Bank Vice President, Maria Kibler and Environmental Engineer, Rick Villa. In initial discussions, the three concluded that the program needed a high school advocate to test the concept. A first meeting was set up with Rotarian, Al Skibbe, the Superintendent of St. Joseph High School, St. Joseph, Michigan. Thinking a hands-on student advocate was needed to give advice, Al invited St. Joseph HIgh School Guidance Counselor, Susie Schweir.

After getting sound advice from Al and Susie, a Rotary Student Program Committee was formed. In addition to Jackie, Maria, Rick and Al, additional well-connected Rotarians were recruited, including Judge David Peterson, Politician Al Pscholka, Retired Business Executive Rae German and Hospice CEO Linda Beushausen.

The test pilot at St. Joseph High School went off flawlessly, with the first 10 high schoolers. Within a year, the Rotary Student Program gained the interest and support from 5 additional schools and 2 additional Rotary Clubs.

Not long after, it was realized that the career connection void was not just in Michigan or in North America, but was global in scale. After gaining the attention of Rotary District 6360 leadership, the idea of expanding the program was presented to Rotary International President 2011-2012, Kalyan Banerjee. On February 2, 2012, a meeting with President Banergee was set up at Rotary International Headquarters, Evanston, Illinois, USA. Included in the meeting was Jackie Huie and her then 12-year old son, Grant Huie. It was a break-through moment.

After the meeting, Jackie was invited to present the Rotary Student Program to the Rotary International Vocational Services Committee, led by Vice Chairman, Paul Netzel. Joining Jackie and Paul, were Rotary International representatives from Argentina, Italy and Japan - all who confirmed the need for Career Mentors was global in scale. From there, program attention was heightened when it was presented at two Rotary International Conventions - one in Lisbon, Portugal (2013) and one in Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015). Convention Speakers were Jackie Huie, her husband, Mike Huie and Rotary District 6360 Governor 2013-2014, Terry Allen, USA.

The greatest spikes of interest in the program fell around the Rotary International Conventions and the release of the April 2017 issue of Rotarian Magazine and online Rotary.org features, like https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-pairs-students-top-mentors. Since program inception in 2007, the RotaryStudentProgram.org website has been trafficked by over 26,000 visitors, coming from more than 157 countries.

The program has been adopted by clubs from around the world.