The Kiwanis Club of Kirkland has announced the recipients of its 2013 scholarship awards. Graduating seniors from Lake Washington High School, Juanita High School, the International Community School and Emerson High School received scholarship grants.

Lisa Matsumoto of Lake Washington High School received the $1,000 Bill Petter Memorial Scholarship award. Five other Lake Washington graduates received $500 awards: Joseph Castro, Kristi Chan, Emma Imhof, Holly Sullivan and Sara Wilson.

Itzell Villarreal from Juanita High School received a $500 award, as did Callie Weber of the International Community School. Two students from Emerson High School also received awards: Anayeli Molina and Shelby Whipple received scholarships to assist them in their future education.

“One of Kiwanis’s main missions is to support young people, and our scholarship awards are just one of the many youth-oriented projects we are involved in,” said Jay Henwood, Kiwanis president. “We’re very happy to help these deserving students make their way through college.”

As with many scholarship programs, competition for the Kiwanis awards can be intense. John White, the Scholarship Committee chairman, noted that the club has received a very large number of applications and the high quality of the applicant pool made it hard for the committee to make its decisions.

“The committee would have loved to make more and larger awards,” White said. “We saw applications from many young people in the community who had combined community service and academic excellence. With young people like this, there is good reason for optimism about our community’s future.”

Through the generosity of Bill Petter’s family, the Kiwanis Club of Kirkland will be expanding its scholarship program to include scholarships available to students pursuing automotive-related studies at Lake Washington Institute of Technology.

Henwood noted, “Bill Petter had a deep love of Kirkland and cars. His family has found a way to perpetuate those loves by endowing the automotive scholarships.”

Anyone interested in learning more about the Kiwanis, its community activities or supporting its scholarship program may visit kirklandkiwanis.org.