section_path: Early life and education
section_name: Early life and education
paragraph_text: Early life and education
  
  The second-born daughter of Yvonne Lewis, an account manager for Pacific Bell, and Stanley Lewis, a computer-animation specialist, Sarasvati Ananda Lewis was born on March 21, 1973, in Los Angeles, California. By the time she was two-years-old, the Lewises' marriage ended in divorce and she and her sister, Lakshmi, were relocated by their mother to live with their grandmother in San Diego. To escape the pain of her failed marriage, her mother then took an extended trip to Europe—leaving Ananda and Lakshmi with their grandmother for about a year. Lewis felt abandoned saying, "It was like she nurtured me and carried me in her womb and then completely left." Lewis often fought with her mother while growing up and rarely saw her father, who remarried. Lewis and her grandmother also frequently "locked horns" while she was growing up.
  
  In 1981, at eight-years-old, she entered herself in the Little Miss San Diego Contest, a beauty pageant, and won. During the talent portion of the competition, Lewis performed a dance routine, which she had choreographed herself, to Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney 's ballad " Ebony and Ivory ". After her win, Lewis attracted the attention of a talent agent and began working in local theater productions and on television. In fourth grade, she enrolled at the San Diego School of Creative and Performance Arts (SCPA), a public magnet school, where she remained for nine years. She studied theater, vocal music, photography, and dance from the fourth grade through high school.
  
  She majored in history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from which she graduated cum laude in 1995.
  
  The second-born daughter of Yvonne Lewis, an account manager for Pacific Bell, and Stanley Lewis, a computer-animation specialist, Sarasvati Ananda Lewis was born on March 21, 1973, in Los Angeles, California. By the time she was two-years-old, the Lewises' marriage ended in divorce and she and her sister, Lakshmi, were relocated by their mother to live with their grandmother in San Diego. To escape the pain of her failed marriage, her mother then took an extended trip to Europe—leaving Ananda and Lakshmi with their grandmother for about a year. Lewis felt abandoned saying, "It was like she nurtured me and carried me in her womb and then completely left." Lewis often fought with her mother while growing up and rarely saw her father, who remarried. Lewis and her grandmother also frequently "locked horns" while she was growing up.
  
  In 1981, at eight-years-old, she entered herself in the Little Miss San Diego Contest, a beauty pageant, and won. During the talent portion of the competition, Lewis performed a dance routine, which she had choreographed herself, to Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney 's ballad " Ebony and Ivory ". After her win, Lewis attracted the attention of a talent agent and began working in local theater productions and on television. In fourth grade, she enrolled at the San Diego School of Creative and Performance Arts (SCPA), a public magnet school, where she remained for nine years. She studied theater, vocal music, photography, and dance from the fourth grade through high school.
  
  She majored in history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from which she graduated cum laude in 1995.