Sarah Gifford Porath ’93 Addressed Graduates at Commencement 2016

Gilmour Academy’s mission calls for students to “develop the competence to see and the courage to act” in their daily lives. The Academy’s newest graduates heard from a Gilmour alumna who has done just that. Sarah Gifford Porath ’93, co-founder of The Mighty, delivered the Commencement address at Gilmour’s 67th Commencement on Sunday, May 29, in the Athletic Center.

Gifford and her husband, Mike Porath ’93, founded The Mighty in 2014 after their daughter was born with Dup15q, a chromosomal duplication syndrome. The Mighty is a digital media company that serves those facing disease, disability and mental illness. It is a space for people to connect to share the joys and challenges of physical and emotional disabilities. In the two years since its founding, The Mighty has grown from three employees to 13, along with a readership of more than 200,000 people. 

Sarah delivered a powerful message to the new graduates, asking them, “Who will you be?” She reminded them that it takes courage to find the answer to that question and that it sometimes arises out of the most difficult or unplanned circumstances. 

At the Commencement ceremony, Gilmour presented diplomas to 115 students who plan to attend such colleges as Boston University, Case Western Reserve University, Colgate, Cornell, Duke, Fordham, NYU, Northwestern, The Citadel, The Ohio State University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, University of Rochester, University of Southern California and Vanderbilt. 

Read more about Sarah Gifford Porath '93 and the two other Commencement speakers, Brendan Cheng and Andrew King. 


Commencement video

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