Margaret Pech Scholarship awarded for 2024
On the first day of Semester 2, Ronda Mugford was announced as this year’s recipient of the Margaret Pech Memorial scholarship.
The scholarship was established by the late Pastor Herman Pech and his wife, Elizabeth in memory of their daughter Margaret, to support a woman studying theology at Australian Lutheran College.
Margaret, who lived her 40 years with cerebral palsy, never let disability and disadvantage deter her. It was quite a shock to her parents, when their beautiful, uncomplaining daughter, who loved life as she loved her Lord and who was always looking forward to more things to experience, do and accomplish, died quite suddenly on Palm Sunday 1990.
The scholarship was established a number of years after Margaret's death and since 1995, thirty women, including Ronda, have been the grateful recipients of the Pech’s generosity.
In accepting the scholarship, Ronda, who has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Research Methodology, had this to say.
It is a privilege for me to receive the Margaret Pech Scholarship. My study at ALC has been a “growth spurt” experience, needing and receiving support, training, trimming and nourishment, all of which have been generously given in the spirit of Christian fellowship and community.
As I have been thinking about Margaret and her characteristics that prompted this scholarship bequest, I have felt a growing affinity with her and what she represents.
Margaret and I are of the same era and so we share a common cultural and faith space. We grew up in the same climate of Lutheran values and traditions. My focus study at ALC has in fact been how this rich Lutheran history and heritage in my family and community has served to shape personal and spiritual identity.
My professional pathway has been as a teacher – for the most part in Lutheran schools and, in particular, Faith Lutheran College. Langmeil Church in Tanunda has been my lifetime home church. I attended the Lutheran School in Tanunda as a pupil, as have my children and my grandchildren. From my present perspective I see the generational continuity of faith and wisdom experience as an encompassing blessing and also as a responsibility.
Margaret was especially gifted with innate courage, faith and motivation. These are just the attributes that today we see the need to explicitly teach our children in programs focusing on well-being, mindfulness and resilience. Margaret would have been the expert curriculum writer. She continues to be an exemplar of our inherent identity potential as children of God.
