2 minute read
Althea Beaton Ducard ’88
THE MISS PORTER’S SCHOOL MAGAZINE
FALL 2021
Forever Grateful
When COVID-19 struck in the spring of 2020 and Miss Porter’s School sent all the girls home for the remainder of the academic year, Althea Beaton Ducard ’88 thought back to her time in high school. “I imagined myself back home in Irvington, New Jersey, with limited access, and what that would have meant in terms of my ability to be productive,” said Ms. Ducard, whose family immigrated from Guyana when she was 2 years old. The pandemic prompted school leaders to begin thinking about what would be necessary to “furnish an equitable experience to our girls learning remotely in various home environments,” she said. “That really hit home to me in a very personal way, because I tried to imagine what that would have looked like had it happened during my time at Porter’s and how difficult that would have been.”
That’s why Ms. Ducard, who received financial aid as a student and now serves on the Miss Porter’s School Board of Trustees, has made a five-year commitment of $10,000 or more annually to provide support for a current student through the school’s Immediate Impact Scholarships program. She has dedicated her gift to the memory of her parents, David and Pamela Beaton. “They took a chance sending their daughter away to this foreign concept known as boarding school, with the inkling that it was really special and would serve her well.”
“I will be forever grateful to Miss Porter’s for investing in me as a student and changing the trajectory of my life,” she said. “Porter’s awarded a substantial scholarship and provided a nurturing environment that opened up new worlds for me. I received an extraordinary gift from the school—my education—and I’m happy to be able to repay it.”
Ms. Ducard, a real estate investor who manages a $14 million portfolio of residential property in five states, lives in the View Park neighborhood of Los Angeles with her husband and three teenage sons.
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