College of Charleston Professor and His Wife Honored for Their Generosity

A celebration was recently held at the Avery Research Center for African American Culture and History in honor of Andrew and Josephine Lewis and the newly endowed Dr. Andrew and Josephine Lewis Scholarship.

Josephine and Andrew Lewis

Now an associate professor emeritus in the College of Charleston’s Department of Health and Human Performance, Andrew Lewis has worked at the College for 36 years, serving as associate dean of the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance; associate professor and chair of health and human performance; interim assistant dean for undergraduate studies and director of the Office of Professional Development in Education. When he became chair of the Department of Health and Human Performance in 1991, he made history as the College’s first African American department chair.

A former member of the Cougar Club Board, he and his wife Josephine established the Dr. Andrew and Josephine Lewis Scholarship at the College in 2010. Earlier this year, he and Josephine endowed the scholarship, which gives African American students in the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance’s Department of Health and Human Performance a step up. It is the Lewises’ hope that students of similar backgrounds can have the same opportunities that Andrew has had.

Josephine and Andrew Lewis with Jimmy Worthy (center), the first recipient of the newly endowed scholarship established in their name

Jimmy Worthy is the first recipient of the endowed scholarship. A senior majoring in physical education, Worthy is also a member of the Call Me MISTER Program at the College and a past member of SPECTRA Program.

“Mr. Worthy is a very personable young man with exceptional talents,” says former S.C. Rep. Floyd Breeland, who directs the Call Me MISTER Program. “He has a wonderful sense of humor and is most responsible, cooperative, generous and sincerely honest in his convictions. He gets along well with other people and is highly respected by his schoolmates and all who know him.”

Worthy is clearly, well, worthy of the investment that the Lewises have made in him and his education. And – as scholarship benefactors, members of the 1770 Society and the Live Oak Society and lifelong education advocates at the College of Charleston – the Lewises are certainly worthy of celebration!