Rotary Clubs hand out half a million dollars in scholarships

EVERETT — Jaspreet Sidhu thought she was applying for a $3,000 scholarship through the Rotary Club of Lynnwood.

At a recent ceremony, she noticed the awards started off small and kept building.

As the night wore on, the Lynnwood High School senior looked around the room at the wealth of talent and smarts, and wondered if organizers forgot to call her name. They didn’t forget. At the end of the night, Sidhu won the club’s highest award of $10,000.

“Can it be me? Can it possibly be me? I looked at my parents — they were shocked, too,” Sidhu said.

Rotary Clubs in Snohomish County — from Everett to Monroe, Stanwood to Edmonds — handed out roughly half a million dollars in scholarship money this year to local graduating seniors and college students.

It’s a hefty amount that keeps growing.

The Rotary Club of Lynnwood received a gift to give away an extra $50,000 this year — $77,500 in all.

Marysville Rotary Club added $10,000 to top the $100,000 mark this year, joining the Everett Rotary Club with that distinction.

For teens looking to take the step from high school to college, it means more and often bigger awards.

Her Rotary scholarship, combined with a Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, means Sidhu has no worries about financing her engineering studies at the University of Washington.

That’s an honor for her parents, as well, who both were unable to go to college growing up in Punjab, India, and sometimes struggle to make ends meet with a taco restaurant they own, Sidhu said.

“In the future, I also want to reward them for all that they did for me,” she said.

No matter the amount, the awards are a boost.

“My mom was stoked,” said Raymond Zhao, a Meadowdale senior who will study his twin passions, applied math and theater, at UW this fall. Zhao won a $5,000 Lynnwood Rotary scholarship.

Marysville tops $100,000

At a Marysville Rotary Club ceremony, Marysville Pilchuck senior Alisha Purdom watched her parents cry with pride when she received a $4,000 scholarship.

“School is so expensive,” said Purdom, who plans to study psychology at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. “It’s going to set me on track with a really good start, to not have that burden there.”

Purdom’s application was one of 88 vying for a total of 50 awards that ranged from $1,000 to $7,500.

“The need is always there. And every student has a story,” said Gayl Spilman of the Marysville Rotary Education Foundation.

Spilman was among the Rotarians who read students’ applications. This year, the readers saw the effect of the October 2014 school shootings at MPHS.

There was the girl who made friendship bracelets for every classmate to help weave the community back together.

There was the football player who had been looking forward to prom with a girl who died in the shooting.

Spilman’s eyes scanned over transcripts and saw heartbreak.

“Straight-A students went to C’s and D’s,” she said. “They climbed the hill and then got back on track.”

There were other stories, too.

This was the first graduating class to remember receiving free dictionaries from the Rotary as third-graders. For many of the teens, it was their first book they owned for themselves.

“More and more people are starting to understand that kids need a hand up,” Spilman said. “We hope that many of these kids will then turn around and give a hand up.”

Scholarships a Rotary tradition

Many service groups award scholarships. But Rotary Clubs form the local powerhouse.

Nearly all of the Rotary Clubs in Snohomish County have some sort of scholarship program. The approaches vary.

The Everett-Port Gardner Rotary Club focuses on Everett Community College students.

The Rotary Club of Monroe ties its scholarships to a Student of the Month program.

The Edmonds Daybreakers Rotary helps talented young musicians who take part in the club’s annual Edmonds Jazz Connection.

The Stanwood Camano Rotary Club’s awards are part of an annual community scholarship gala put on by the Stanwood Camano Area Foundation.

One gap is in Snohomish, where the local Rotary club shut down in 2015 for lack of membership. The club had awarded scholarships.

This year, accomplished young artist Carolyn Yip, a student at Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish, was awarded a scholarship sponsored by Everett Rotary and Schack Art Center. Otherwise, Snohomish teens aren’t on this year’s Rotary lists.

Money for scholarships comes from duck dashes, auctions, festivals and endowments.

In Lynnwood, the Martha Lake Community Club sold property in 2010 and made sure the proceeds would help with scholarships for south Snohomish County teens. Income off the sale means the Rotary Club of Lynnwood can give out $22,500 a year.

Before the gift, the number and amount of scholarships varied widely, tied to the success of individual fundraisers.

“We’re able to raise the profile of the scholarship program because we have confidence that there’s money to give away,” said Jonathan Hatch, president of the Lynnwood Rotary Community Foundation.

Service is central

Like other Rotary clubs, the Lynnwood group pays attention to family income and looks for students who exemplify Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self.”

Beyond that, approaches to selecting scholarship recipients vary. There are applications, letters of reference, essays, point systems, interviews.

Monroe Rotary’s emphasis on participation in an annual food drive has been a boon to the Sky Valley Food Bank. The spring event comes during a historically slow time and typically brings in more than 3,000 pounds of food and more than $1,500.

The Rotary Club of Everett relies on school counselors to identify scholarship prospects. Those nominees are then interviewed by Rotary members, who make final selections.

The Everett club’s largest award increased further this year, to a value of $19,000 over four years.

The total amount of the club’s scholarships and awards soared, too, from $149,500 last year to $180,300 this year. That includes $6,000 in shopping money for college-bound teens from low-income families.

The Pat Miller Scholarship was among those that rose in value, to $3,600. The scholarship is in memory of businessman Pat Miller and was created by his son, Steve Miller.

As a boy, Steve Miller recalled carrying his father’s suit and tie to the family car as his father prepared to drive to a Rotary meeting. Pat Miller had 25 years of perfect attendance (with no online make-ups like there are now).

“It was a big deal. So I was always aware of his involvement in Rotary. But more, his belief that the Rotarian dollar did a lot of good — you got a lot of bang for your buck,” said Steve Miller, a Rotarian.

Miller now runs the family business, American Distributing. But the scholarship — aimed at an aspiring engineer — is an homage to Pat Miller’s past as a chemical engineer. Before coming to Everett, Pat Miller built reactors for the first nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, his son said.

Everett High School senior Hank Tian will use the scholarship at Stanford University, where he plans to study sociology and computer science this fall.

New in Everett this year was a $2,500 scholarship sponsored by Mark Nesse and his wife, Kathy Pemberton, both Rotary members. The scholarship went to Everett Community College student Wendy Potter as she pursues a career in education.

The couple were extra excited for this year’s ceremony, to meet Potter on stage.

The ceremony is always heartwarming, Nesse said.

“How can it not be? You see kids who have worked hard their whole high school career and they’re kind of at a jumping off point,” he said. “It’s community applause, and telling them they’re doing the right thing.”