« Softball 2011

Kristine Priebe

School
Georgia Tech
Position
First Base
Major
Public Policy
AVG
.343
R
37
H
48
FLD%
1.000
RBI
47

Classroom

Kristine Priebe has a cumulative 3.04 grade point average and will graduate with a degree in public policy. But her true passion is to become a firefighter. After meeting an Atlanta battalion chief, she became interested in the job as a career. She is already a Certified First Responder and hopes to intern with the fire department next year after she has concluded softball. The first four paid female firefighters in California were hired in San Diego, and they were called “Pioneers.” Kristine’s mom was one of them. Only two percent of all US firefighters are female.

Character

While at college Priebe has blossomed into a well rounded, responsible, independent young lady although the road has not always been an easy one. She entered college with several ideas about what she wanted as a career. She grew up in a household with both parents who had spent their lives serving the public. Her father a veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department and her mother, retired from San Diego City Fire Department, was one of the first female firefighters in the country.  Both parents spent extensive hours volunteering for the community while she was growing up. Therefore,  a career path in public service was a natural one. She decided on firefighting and has been focused on preparing herself for success in this field. She worked on getting accepted to the University of Florida Fire and Emergency Service B.A. program and was working on getting her EMT certification and Fire Academy Certification. This was difficult as the needed 16 weeks for the academy was not available due to her college and softball schedules. In the meantime she decided to major in Spanish at UF as she felt this would enhance her ability to communicate with the public. At the end of her sophomore year Priebe had a difficult decision to make. She would be better prepared to succeed in her chosen career path if she obtained a degree in public policy or public administration. These majors were not offered at the University of Florida. In addition she had two years of eligibility left for softball and wanted more opportunity to play. She loved the University of Florida and this was an extremely difficult decision. After exploring her options, she elected to transfer to Georgia Tech where she would be able to pursue her major in public policy and also have an opportunity to join a softball program that was nationally ranked. This was not an easy move as GT did not accept all of her credits from UF and she had to work hard make up for the loss.

Community

Priebe has been Georgia Tech’s Project Eye-to-Eye chapter coordinator, which is a mentoring program for middle school kids with learning disabilities. Priebe has spent time with this organization arranging weekly visits to Kennedy Middle School and providing transportation for other volunteers, communicating weekly with the national Project Eye-to-Eye coordinator, recruiting and training new members to participate in the project. She also plans to go to a convention this summer at Brown University to receive further training for her position. David Flink, the Executive Director/Co-Founder of Project Eye-To-Eye, lives in Atlanta and she plans to meet with him this semester. The most rewarding part of Project Eye-to-Eye is the opportunity that this organization is giving these young students. They look up to her and she shows them that students like them can go to a four-year college and excel. Something that has especially stuck out to her was the fact that Kennedy does not provide any art programs. In California, art is required for every student and the idea that it isn’t even offered here was strange to her. Eye-to-Eye helps provide some creative activities for these students.  Priebe is also the GTAA Women’s Committee Member/Social Committee Member. This group began forming over a year ago and provides the following for current female student athletes: networking opportunities, community service activities, and a chance for the female GT athletes to bond and come together as a support system for each other. They organized the following activities for all female athletes at Tech: Girls on the Run weekly running with a nearby middle school, Girls on the Run 5k run, annual GT female social celebration, and networking nights with professional females. In addition, she has also participated in the following community service projects at Georgia Tech: Earth Day volunteer, game-day recycling volunteer, toy drive volunteer, reading books at an elementary school. She also participated in many service projects while at Florida.

Competition

Priebe was a 2010 first-team All-ACC member, a 2010 second-team All-Southeast Region member and a member of the 2010 ACC All-Tournament Team. After driving in just nine runs in her first 25 games as a Yellow Jacket, Priebe had 47 RBI in her last 30 games of the regular season and ranked third on the team and 42nd in the nation with 59. Priebe batted .331 (eighth in the ACC) with a .657 slugging percentage (fifth), .491 on-base percentage (third), 36 runs scored (tied for sixth), 55 hits (eighth), nine doubles (tied for 10th), 15 home runs (third), 109 total bases (fifth), 34 walks (sixth) and 19 hit by pitches (tied for first). Priebe had 12 multi-hit and 17 multi-RBI games last season while also delivering seven-game winning RBI. She hit three grand slams and two of her game-winning RBI were walk-off home runs.