Honors Program to receive $1 million scholarship pledge

By Rachel Aretakis | Editor in chief

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Honors Program students will receive up to 10 new scholarships per year from a $1 million pledge approved by the UK Board of Trustees on Friday.

The Board accepted the pledge from the T.W. Lewis Foundation of Tempe, Ariz., which creates and endows the T.W. Scholarship Fund. It will create $5,000 scholarships for students specifically from Fayette County and a 10-county region in Eastern Kentucky.

Up to five scholarships will be awarded to students from the following counties: Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Perry and Wolfe counties.

T.W. Lewis is a 1971 graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. He also is a former member of the UK Capital Campaign Steering Committee during the “Dream, Challenge, Succeed” campaign that began in 2004.

President Eli Capilouto spoke to the Board about the foundation, describing Lewis’ connection to the eastern part of the state. Though Lewis only lived in Lexington for 10 years, his mother grew up in Eastern Kentucky in the 1920s, Capilouto said.