Students, alumni and parents gathered in the culinary arts dining room at the regional high school Tuesday morning for a celebratory breakfast lauding the achievements of this year’s scholarship winners from the Permanent Endowment Fund of Martha’s Vineyard.

About 20 students attended the breakfast; in all this year 122 scholarships were awarded totaling $242,000. About a third of the recipients are pursuing study at the graduate level. Some are the first generation in their family to attend college. Some do not speak English as their first language. All are from the Vineyard, either recent graduates of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School or the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. One Island recipient went to Falmouth Academy.

Kerry Alley, chairman of the scholarship committee and a longtime member of the endowment board, noted the diversity present in the room. Many of the scholarships are based around specific subjects of study. “That one’s doing maritime,” said Mr. Alley, pointing to one student. “Those two are nursing. Lots of different subjects.”

Many students found out about the scholarships through their school guidance counselor and later went through a lengthy application process. Guidance counselors look out for students who would be a good fit for certain scholarships, while also making sure that one student isn’t receiving a disproportionate share of money from Island organizations.

“It’s nice to have other outside supports to help you for college,” said Brigida Larsen, a charter school student and scholarship recipient. “Especially since you know they wouldn’t be helping you if they didn’t believe in you.”

The Permanent Endowment Fund began in 1982 with a bequest of $60,000. Today the fund has grown to more than $10 million and has handed out 700 scholarships along the way. The fund is in the process of upgrading its digital presence with a new website that can handle applications and donations, hoping to attract more of both. And in a sign of how large the number of scholarship recipients has become, fund leaders announced at the breakfast the beginnings of a new networking organization for current and previous winners of the scholarships. The network will help connect the recipients with jobs, internships and even social opportunities.

Julie Anne McNary, executive director of the fund, said at the breakfast that the networking group will be run for and by scholarship recipients. “They will run this network and do what they want to with,” she said, adding: “This is their’s more than it is mine.”

In addition to scholarships, the endowment fund also provides community grants for a variety of purposes, another central tenet of its mission.

For Vineyard students, the scholarship funding can make a crucial difference in their pursuit of higher education. But the fund in turn says that it is the students who fuel the organization and allow it to succeed.

“You are the inspiration,” said Ms. McNary told students at the breakfast. “You going out into the world from this tight knit community. You are our ambassadors.”