Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School

Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School
Location
Santa Cruz , California United States
Information
Type	Private
Established	1994
CEEB code	053290
Head of School	Christy Hutton
Grades	6-12
Enrollment	approximately 150
Average class size	12
Color(s)	Blue & White
Mascot	Griffin
Website	kirby.org

Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School, commonly referred to as Kirby School, is a co-educational, non-sectarian independent school located in Santa Cruz, California. The school educates students in grades 6–12.

History and general information

Founded in 1994, Kirby School is named after Georgiana Bruce Kirby, a suffragist, educator, and public speaker who settled in California in the mid-1800s.

In August 2006, the school moved to the Tarantella building, formerly a high-technology complex in the Harvey West area of Santa Cruz.

Academic achievements and recognition

In 2006, the College Board Advanced Placement Report to the Nation recognized Kirby students for having the "Best in the World" in Art History performance among schools with 300 or fewer students. In the spring of 2009, Kirby students took 99 AP exams. 94% scored 3 or higher (college credit), and 47% achieved the maximum score of 5.

From 1999 through 2009, Kirby graduated 250 students, of which thirty-six (15%) earned National Merit recognition. Twenty-five percent of the graduating class of 2014 earned National Merit recognition.

Extracurricular

Kirby School has 10 athletic teams. They offer a mix of club teams, as well as teams that compete in the Central Coast Section. Kirby has a no-cut policy. The ultimate frisbee team is nationally recognized for producing excellent players, including Anton Orme who represents the United States on the national team. Orme was second-runner up for the Division One Offensive Player of the Year. In 2018, the team competed in a state championship match.

Kirby School has a robust club scene, with over 25 student-led clubs. Music ensembles and theater productions are also popular. Each year, Kirby puts on three concerts with open-mic events in between. They have a beginner strings group, chamber choir, chorus, jazz band, orchestra, and jazz choir. Kirby puts on three theater productions every year: one play, one musical, and one middle-school musical.

Notable Alumni

Aza Steel ‘09 is the founder of GoGuardian which he launched after graduating from UCLA. In 2016, he was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 Education.

Mia Deng ‘13 is the youngest partner at Dragonfly Capital, a crypto asset firm that handles $2 billion in assets. Deng was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 Finance and Venture Capital.

Dr. Clare Yue Lou ‘14 completed a fellowship at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) where she was part of the HS Chau Women in Enterprising Science Program (WIES). Lou was selected to receive $1 million in seed funding to support her work "mining human microbiome datasets to develop immune-modulating therapies for conditions ranging from cancer to autoimmunity. With an AI-driven computational pipeline, she found peptides that showed robust antitumor properties in vitro." Lou co-founded Sift Biosciences which has received a NVIDIA startup grant. She was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare.

Shell Eisenberg ‘09 broke the U.S. Women’s National Record in May 2018, freediving to a depth of 85m.

Anthony Arya ‘20 was a contestant on season 15 of NBC’s “The Voice.” Arya was 15 at the time and competed on “team Adam.” Arya attends Stanford University and is active on the Northern California music scene.

Affiliations

Kirby is a member of and is accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

External links

• Official site

36.98744°N 122.03988°W / 36.98744; -122.03988