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The Hauenstein Center's educational outreach program invites West Michigan educators and their students to join our community of learners devoted to the study of leadership, the humanities, and public policy. We offer special opportunities to attend our community events and a curated collection of educational resources. Middle and high school educators have an open invitation to attend our private pre-event receptions.
Our team is eager to partner with area administrators, educators, and student groups to bring our valuable programming to the next generation of ethical, effective leaders for the 21st century.
Educator Events
Eyeing the Bench: A Supreme Court Update
Midterms 101: Historical Patterns and Contemporary Stakes
These guides offer guidance on incorporating past Hauenstein Center event recordings into your curriculum. Each guide provides modular activities to fit available classroom time and recommended resources and questions, as well as a customizable graphic organizer that can be assigned to students and links to professionally produced recordings of the event.
U.S. History
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MLK: Leading Like a King with Joe Jones |
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Collective Memory: Race and Remembering the Past |
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Presidential Precedents with Lindsay Chervinsky |
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How President Bill Clinton's Campaigns Reshaped Modern Presidential Politics |
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Why WWII Still Matters with Garrett Graff |
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Plessy v Ferguson: Race in American Memory |
Community leader Joe Jones shared his leadership philosophy and defining experiences as a leader in West Michigan for our annual MLK Day Celebration and Wheelhouse Talk in 2025.
Steven Luxenberg discusses how collective memory shapes our national identity. Fighting over statues and names reflects deeper battles over how we interpret our past. Ultimately, he stresses that we must engage with history truthfully to give meaning to moral progress.
Until the passing of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, February 22 was federally recognized as Washington's Birthday. The day allows Americans to pull from the founding fathers' wisdom and apply the lessons of their day to the ills plaguing ours.
In this talk, Jay Barth, Director of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum, offered insight into the unique nature of the Clinton campaigns and analyzed the roots of our contemporary electoral politics in the weeks before the 2024 election.
Historian, journalist, and author Garrett Graff discussed two of his recent oral histories about the major turning points of World War II: the D-Day invasion of Europe as well as the Manhattan Project and the atomic bombings of Japan. He explored the legacy of the Greatest Generation, how World War II changed the world, and the first-person realities of fighting in the greatest conflict humanity has ever known.
Steve Luxenberg's presentation reframes racial history as shared American history, urging educators to move beyond textbook versions of Plessy v. Ferguson. By highlighting forgotten figures and Northern resistance to segregation, he shows how memory and omission shape public understanding. This approach invites students to critically examine historical narratives and engage with the deeper roots of racial division.
Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken's presentation offers a fresh look at modern 21st-century federalism by examining federalism as a system of interdependence rather than separation. Through Cooperative and Uncooperative Federalism, she demonstrates how states and cities influence national outcomes—sometimes by enforcing federal policy, at other times by resisting or innovating.
Join us for an in-depth, nonpartisan conversation on America's role in the world and the foreign policy issues at stake in the 2024 election, including international trade and national security, the U.S.-China relationship, and U.S. engagement in global conflicts.
The Hauenstein Center's Common Ground Initiative convened a bipartisan panel to discuss the challenges facing both major political parties amidst leadership challenges, internal calls for reform, and squabbles over party platforms. Our guests helped us assess the Republican and Democratic parties and consider what strategies we may see from each in 2026, 2028, and beyond.
The Hauenstein Center welcomed Yale political science professor Steven B. Smith, syndicated columnist and author Cal Thomas, and historian and novelist Elizabeth Cobbs, to discuss the definition of patriotism, debate what actions should be considered patriotic vs. unpatriotic, and consider the role of the institutions they represent in fostering a sense of patriotism among American citizens.
The annual Constitution Day program offers unique insight on constitutional questions that shape American democracy. In 2024, the Hauenstein Center's Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Nicole Hemmer, offered a look at how the Constitution occasionally clashes with Americans' popular understanding of democracy and what this means for politics today.
Educator Mailing List
Staff and Contact
Randy Cotts
The Hauenstein Center is excited to partner with Randy Cotts, Educational Outreach Consultant, to support our K-12 outreach efforts. Randy recently retired from a 30+ year career as a teacher with Byron Center High School. A graduate of Western Michigan University, he earned a bachelor's degree in secondary education and a master's degree in history. Along with AP government, he has taught 10th grade U.S. history, sociology, psychology, international relations, and constitutional law. He advised the school's Close Up program, which brought students to Washington, D.C., and started a German-American exchange program. Randy uses his education experience and passion for youth civic engagement to build relationships with local teachers and create curriculum guides for and from our events.
Reach out to Randy for more information about the Hauenstein Center's educational resources at [email protected].
