Receiving memorial scholarship ‘a privilege’

Ronda Mugford is this year’s recipient of the Australian Lutheran College (ALC) Margaret Pech Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarship was established by the late Pastor Hermann Pech and his wife, Elizabeth, in memory of their daughter Margaret, to support a woman studying theology at ALC.

Margaret, who lived her 40 years with cerebral palsy, never let disability and disadvantage deter her. A woman who loved life as she loved her Lord, she died suddenly on Palm Sunday 1990.

Since 1995, 30 women have been the recipients of the Pech’s generosity.

Ronda (pictured with ALC Principal Rev Dr Tim Stringer), who recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Research Methodology, said receiving the scholarship was a privilege. ‘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 community’, she said.

‘Margaret and I … grew up in the same climate of Lutheran values and traditions. My focus study at ALC has been how this rich Lutheran history and heritage in my family and community has served to shape personal and spiritual identity.’

Ronda, whose profession has been as a teacher – mostly in Lutheran schools, has been a lifelong member of Langmeil Lutheran Church in Tanunda, South Australia. She attended the Lutheran school in Tanunda, as have her children and grandchildren, and sees ‘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’, she said. ‘These are just the attributes that we see the need to explicitly teach our children. Margaret would have been the expert curriculum writer. She continues to be an exemplar of our inherent identity potential as children of God.’