John Covington & Robert Lukey Performing Arts Endowed Scholarship

Dr. John L Covington and Professor Robert J. Lukey were a married couple. Theirs was a relationship of deep commitment and enduring love that spanned almost 36 years. It was cut short when John died in 2020 after a 15-year battle with scleroderma. They had a passion for travel, for the arts, for healthcare, and for education. John was a dentist who graduated from the College of Charleston in 1984 and from the MUSC Dental School in 1988. He ran the Sexton Dental Clinic in Myrtle Beach. Robert was a graduate of the University Pretoria, The New School for Social Research in New York, and The Citadel in Charleston. He was the arts & sciences department chair at Johnson & Wales University in Charleston. They had no children but with this scholarship, they aim to “adopt” promising young people and to help foster their education. Both John and Robert were deeply committed to helping others regardless of age, race, religion, origin, and, most importantly, of sexual orientation/identification. It is their fervent wish that the student who receives this scholarship shall have similar values and shall have expressed those prior to receiving the scholarship.

The purpose of this gift is to provide scholarships for a student in the Master of Arts in Teaching- Performing Arts Program who plans to teach performing arts upon graduation.
Preference will be given to students who have a demonstrated involvement, support or participation in LGBTQ+ activism.
If a student in the MA.T. in the Performing Arts program does not meet all the criteria, preference should be given to an undergraduate student majoring in Theatre.