Staff Photo by Meghan Brown -- Girls Preparatory School senior Kirstin Early will attend Vanderbilt University’s school of engineering in the fall.

Kirstin Early doesn’t like to brag, but if she did, she’d have plenty to brag about.

The Girls Preparatory School senior is not only her class valedictorian, boasting a better-than-perfect grade point average, she also received a perfect score on her ACT exam, seemingly without much effort.

While some students might study frantically for their dreaded pre-collegiate standardized tests, taking classes, working with private tutors and filling out practice tests, Kirstin said: “I didn’t take a review course, but I did look over a book.”

Kirstin said she took a full load of Advanced Placement classes and participated in extracurricular activities. She even takes her brother to and from school each day, but says she doesn’t mind.

“In her seven years with us, she has amazed every teacher with her exceptional work,” said Rickie Pierce, principal of the Upper School at GPS. “She has won too many academic honors to mention.”

Since the tenth grade, Kirstin, 17, has been spending most days after school rehearsing with Terpsichord, GPS’s modern-dance company. She is also the vice president of the Junior Classical League, National Honor Society, chess club and Roman Culture Club.

Ms. Pierce said that Kirstin spearheaded tutoring sessions for younger students as part of her role in National Honor Society. She has been a student at GPS since grade six.

After weighing her options, Kirstin will begin college in Nashville this fall, as a member of Vanderbilt University’s Class of 2012. She has been awarded the prestigious Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship to the university’s school of engineering. The stellar student is undecided in her major, but said she is likely to choose a math or science-based degree. Her favorite subjects in school are physics, Latin and math.

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“It seems like every time you learn something it builds on what you knew before.” Kirstin said. “After a while it all comes together very nicely.”

She said that she doesn’t know what her friends and classmates think about her perfect ACT scores because it’s simply not something they talk about.

According to Ms. Pierce, Kirstin was the recipient of GPS’s Grace McCallie Academic Scholarship for her senior year. She has spent summers in educational programs at college campuses, including Duke University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.