As part of the capital campaign, Celebrating Our Roots; Cultivating for the Future, Tag Birge ’85 and his wife Marta have established the Birge Family Scholarship for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Orchard School. The $300,000 Birge Family Scholarship will be matched by a portion of the recent $2 million pledge to provide a total of $600,000 in future endowed tuition assistance to African-American and Hispanic-American families.

 

This gift will advance Orchard’s mission to be an inclusive community deliberately rich with diversity—something Tag is very passionate about. "Orchard has been an important part of our family's history, and we're excited to make an Orchard education possible for even more families in the future. One of our favorite parts about Orchard is its commitment to diversity," Tag said.

 

Since Orchard’s inception nearly a century ago in the fall of 1922, there have been five generations of Birges educated at Orchard, starting with one of our nine founding mothers, Emily Taggart Sinclair. Orchard is honored to count many Birge family members in its alumni community. Next month, Tag's oldest son Ethan '21 will graduate, followed by his brother Owen '22. Tag's brother Jim Birge '87 and his wife Ali also have two children at Orchard who will graduate within the next few years: Kothe '22 and Maxine '24. Jon Birge ’53 serves on the Board of Governors.

 

Head of School Dr. Sherri Helvie is deeply grateful to the Birge family for advancing the School's commitment to the critical work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. "The Birge family has been an incredible asset to our first 100 years," Helvie said. "And this scholarship solidifies their role throughout our future, as well." 

 

This generous gift helped to bring the capital campaign into its home stretch with just $50K remaining to reach its $11 million goal! We hope everyone will join in the final efforts to make this a complete success on Orchard’s Day of Giving on Tuesday, May 4! 

 

The Birge Family Scholarship for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be endowed and provide ongoing support for Orchard’s future.