Like many teens of her era growing up in the South, Rebecca Underwood Sewell (55C) picked cotton to help her family make ends meet. If she learned anything in those sun-scorched fields, it was that one day she wanted a job where she could "clean up" to go to work.
Seven decades later, she and her husband, Dr. Ike Sewell, also from North Georgia, established a charitable gift annuity (CGA) at Berry College to help financially disadvantaged young people earn a degree — and find a job out of the sun, if they choose.
Rebecca, whose father died when she was just 4 years old, was the next-to-youngest of five children. She remembers that, though times were hard, life was good.
"We all helped each other," she recalled. "Whoever had the greatest need at any given time became the focus of our attention." We all persevered and went on to live fulfilling and contributing lives." For Rebecca, that meant following her older sister Joan to Berry where she worked in the girls' school kitchen, the bakery, Oak Hill and the House o' Dreams, the college store, and the Education Department.
After graduating with a degree in business education, Rebecca taught for five years at Model High School during which time she met and married Ike, a doctoral student at North Carolina State University. Rebecca joined Ike in North Carolina where she taught at a Kings Business College.
The arrival of children followed, and the family moved to Knoxville, Tenn., where Ike was a professor, researcher, department head, and associate dean of The University of Tennessee's Agricultural Experiment Stations. Rebecca continued her course work, attaining a master's degree and teaching students at two local business colleges and at The University of Tennessee.
Looking back, Rebecca says that her Berry education "made all the difference in the world," and although Ike never attended Berry, the college has a special place in his heart because of the opportunity it provided Rebecca.
When the pair began discussing their legacy, they thought of their children, churches, and the colleges that had contributed so much to their lives: the University of Georgia, Berry, and The University of Tennessee. At an earlier time, Ike and Rebecca had established CGAs at UT for biosystems engineering and at Berry for a Gate of Opportunity Scholarship, so when it came time for the couple to give again, they chose the same method.
A CGA is a contract between a donor and a nonprofit organization in which the donor makes a charitable contribution in exchange for a lifetime income stream. The charity invests the gift and makes guaranteed fixed payments for life to the donor(s). After the donor(s) death, the remaining balance goes to the charity to be used as the donor has designated.
"I can think of nothing better than to help someone attain an education that changes everything for the student and for society," Rebecca said.
