Makenna Hopkins is the Rotary Club of Cleveland's Excellence in Business Economics honoree for 2024. Makenna was born and raised in Medina, Ohio and graduated from Medina High School in 2020. She attended Cleveland State University for all four years of her undergraduate work and was a member of the CSU Dance Team for the past two years. She was a competitive dancer her entire childhood and now teaches and choreographs competitive dance.

An exciting fact about Makenna is that she is a board member for a new non-profit foundation created by her family, called Passionate Educators. It was started in honor of her mom, who was an educator for over 30 years, and its purpose is to continue her legacy by providing grants and scholarships to teachers and high school seniors who demonstrate exceptional passion and motivation for becoming outstanding examples of excellence in the teaching profession. In the last couple of years, Passionate Educators has provided eight scholarships to Brunswick High School seniors who are pursuing degrees in education and four grants to current educators at Crestview Elementary School.

Makenna’s plans for the future are to open her own dance studio and continue working to expand Passionate Educators and its impact on the community.