If Barbara Wagstaff is feeling embarrassed about being profiled for her decision to become a Monash benefactor, she insists her mother would be more so, particularly as Barbara is setting up a scholarship in her mother’s name: The Daisy Muriel Wagstaff Scholarship.
“My mother was English, very much the stiff upper lip, ‘don’t make a fuss’, type,” says Barbara. “So she’d be mortified by this.
“But she was an intelligent woman who never got the chance to go to University and do the things she wanted to do. That’s why I feel very strongly about leaving this money to Monash – to allow women from disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly women who are interested in science, the chance to go to University.”
Barbara also has a strong connection to Monash, achieving firstly a Bachelor of Science degree in geology and then a PhD, while also teaching at the University.
“Monash is a very dynamic campus and it became like home,” she says. “And that’s what this scholarship will be for – trying to help people experience that, to do what my mother couldn’t do.
Learn moreabout how you can support education and research by leaving a bequest to Monash.