Beth MacLaren Smallwood Scholarships (Deaf Education)

About the donor

This scholarship was established by the Beth MacLaren Smallwood Foundation in memory of Beth MacLaren Smallwood.  Beth was a passionate supporter and advocate of enhancing educational opportunities for students who are deaf and hard of hearing to empower them to reach their full potential. It is the wish of the Foundation to continue Beth’s desire to support the knowledge and skills of teachers of the deaf and leaders in the field in Victoria.

Beth MacLaren attended primary school at Strathcona during the depression years but maintained limited contact with the school until the 1990s when she made an appointment to see the new Principal, Ruth Bunyan, the first female after three decades of male principals. While waiting in the foyer, she glanced through a book situated on a side table. In it she found a photograph of a bridge her grandfather, Henry McKenzie, had built in Tasmania. This book, and meeting, led to a longstanding friendship with the Principal and renewed interest in her old school, resulting in the establishment of the Beth MacLaren Smallwood Scholarships at Strathcona in the late 1990s.

Beth was an only child and, following the death of her fiancée, nursed her parents in their declining years. In 1968 she married Ian Smallwood and about that time lost her own hearing. Following this, she became supportive of research into cochlear implants, met Professor Graeme Clarke and, in 1994, made a significant donation to the University of Melbourne for the establishment of a chair in audiology and speech, now named after Professor Clarke.

Beth’s interest in supporting young children with hearing impairment grew, particularly in oral education.  Following her death in 2012, the Beth MacLaren Smallwood Foundation was established – primarily for scholarships to girls with hearing impairment to attend her old school, Strathcona, where she had been very happy.