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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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It's a hefty amount that keeps growing.

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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No matter the amount, the awards are a boost.

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“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.

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Marysville tops $100,000

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

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“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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Spilman's eyes scanned over transcripts and saw heartbreak.

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

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There were other stories, too.

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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.

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“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.”