Leroy Lewis, Jr., director of Upward Bound and Pre-College programs at the College of Charleston, was the sole recipient of the 35-year Service Award from the states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The award will be presented at the 2012 Annual Tri-State TRiO Conference.
The federal TRIO Programs (TRIO) are outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. Upward Bound is one of eight TRiO programs and it helps young students to prepare for higher education.
Lewis has long worked with TRiO programs and also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from South Carolina Council for Educational Opportunity Programs (SCCEOP) for his unprecedented service to S.C. TRiO and its students.
Lewis is a veteran educator of thirty-eight years and has taught in the public schools of Charleston, Washington, DC, Berlin, Germany and Seoul, South Korea. He has led the College of Charleston’s Upward Bound program since 2006 and his mission is to push minority and potential first-generation students into colleges and universities across America, so that they may better claim the American dream.
In addition to his work for the College, Lewis is a commission member for the City of Charleston with the Mayor’s Office for Children, Youth and Families, Program, he is chairman of the Justice Academy USA , and a past board development chair for the Charleston Development Academy Charter School. He is the Lowcountry representative for the South Carolina Council for Educational Opportunity Program Personnel/SC TRIO Programs and is the youth development chair of the Greater Charleston YWCA’s MLK Breakfast Committee. Finally, he is a member of the Community Partnership that seeks to engage young people in an effort to stop violence and positively impact their communities.
