About a month ago, Vismaya Kharkar won the Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee for the second year in a row. Last year at nationals she tied for forty-second unfortunately not advancing to semifinals. This year, she has another chance to do better than last year. There is a possibility that she may win this year or next year, and if she does, she will be Utah's first champion to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Vismaya did amazing her first two years, placing ninth in 2009 and sixth in 2010. In 2011, she prevailed and finally won the Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee (her winning word was infarction). This year, her winning word was aberrant (straying from the right, or normal way).
I wish her and her fellow Utahns (Jared Ward and Sophie Choate) the best of luck! Jared Ward is also returning to nationals for the second time!
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is almost here! There are 53 more days until most spellers arrive in Washington, D.C. (May 27). There are so many spellers returning this year, including several five-peats and four-peats.
This year also includes six-year-old Lori Madison, the youngest speller to ever make it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. There is a possibility that she may be the first seven-peat at the Bee if she does not win before that.
The spellers from Utah this year:
Speller Sponsor
Jared Ward (Southeast Education Service Center, Price, Utah) Two-peat
Sophie Choate (Daily Herald, Provo, Utah)
Vismaya Kharkar (The Valley Journals, Salt Lake City) Two-peat
There is no article for Vismaya Kharkar yet, but I learned it from a friend.
Vismaya is from my area, and she did amazing at nationals last year, even if she did not advance to the semifinals. The Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee winning word from last year was: infarction. Her Rounds 2 and 3 words were maillot and affianced. She first competed as a fourth grader in 2009 placing ninth, next was 2010 when she placed sixth, but she pushed hard in 2011 to make it to nationals for her first time. She's now returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Is there a possibility that she may win in this year or next year? Utah has never had a champion at the National Spelling Bee. Go Vismaya!
I'm pretty sure at least one speller from Utah, if not all three, will make it to semifinals. Utah has not had a two-peat at nationals since 2006-2007 (Kunal Sah), but there are 2 two-peats this year! Go Utah!
Last year, only one of the four spellers from Utah made it to Semifinals: Anna-Marie Sprenger. When I read the article about her win, I was impressed that she had hardly studied, but she had a background knowledge of many languages. She misspelled privatim as privatum. Privatum is an actual word in Latin, but it is not in Webster's Third. It just has a similar meaning and pronunciation as privatim. You may have heard the term ius privatum, which means "private law". Anna-Marie seemed so confident with her spelling, but Utah is still proud of her.
My sister first competed as a fourth grader in a homeschool bee with the K12 program, and she placed fourth her first year. The speller who won her Bee really impressed me, even if he was out in the first round last year. His mother told me that he knew every word on that list, but struggled with the word he misspelled (I believe it was semantics). In 2012, I don't remember what she placed, because there were hundreds of students in her school bee. At least she has three years left.
My Spelling Bee Career is a very long story that it is hard to put everything into detail, especially my final year. To read about important parts of my career in the bee, please go under Pages and click on Spelling Bee Career. My spelling bee goal now is to help other spellers reach their goals through this blog and a spelling bee club I have been working on. Right now, I only have spellers that I see and talk to often, but in the future, other spellers from the Salt Lake Valley and around are welcome to attend. If you are not from the area, I will be posting videos on this blog of the sessions, or I will make a website and post them there.
Good luck to all the spellers, and I will be watching!
My love words and spelling began when I was two while watching Sesame Street. At that age, I had no idea what a spelling bee was. When I got to first grade, there was a spelling bee contest, and I won it. That was when I learned about Spellbound and the Scripps National Spelling Bee. While watching Spellbound back in 2004, I knew that I wanted to be at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
I began to study a lot, and in 2005, I watched the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the first time ever. The words amazed me and so did the spellers. Anurag Kashyap, Aliya Deri, and Samir Patel were the last three spellers standing. All three amazed me, including Samir Patel. I looked up to him in the 2006-2007 Bees, and I was disappointed when he lost.
During my final year of the Bee, I remember being encouraged by friends, family, and many others, but after a mispronunciation and ambiguous answers to the word tentacled (it waspronounced tin-tuh-cuhled), I was disappointed. I had studied so hard for years without missing one day of studying. A few months later, I realized that some of the best spellers don't win the National Spelling Bee, and this includes many spellers that I looked up to over the years (Tia Thomas, Samir Patel, Matthew Evans, Tim Ruiter, Neetu Chandak, Laura Newcombe, and so much more).
I began planning a spelling bee club, and right now, I have a few spellers.
During one of my advanced math classes over the summer, I realized that my spelling bee studies really helped with my studying out of spelling. When I began high school, I felt very dedicated to it, and I still do. The spelling bee changed the course of my life.
Study a lot
Be dedicated
If you don't win the National Spelling Bee, be happy with your placement.
Remain calm on stage.
Before competing, do something other than spelling (reading, playing video games, talk with friends, etc.)
I was researching for spelling bee articles, when one of them popped out at me. When I saw the words For the fifth straight year..., I opened the article. http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Danbury-boy-spells-it-like-it-is-3432399.php Rahul Malayappan will be heading back to the Scripps National Spelling Bee for his fifth time! His winning word was dihedral.
The other five-peat is Nicholas Rushlow who tied for 14th last year. Both Rahul and Nicholas are no longer eligible to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee after this year.
There have not been five-peats at the Bee since Matthew Evans and Tia Thomas in 2008, but there has not been a five-peat champion since Kerry Close in 2006. If either five-peat wins, that speller will be the second five-peat to ever win the Scripps National Spelling Bee!
Congratulations to Sophie Choate for winning the Utah Valley Spelling Bee yesterday! Her winning word was mordacious (biting or given to biting; ). She's always wanted to go the Scripps National Spelling Bee since an early age, and here she comes!
You may realize that the Latin root mordac means "biting". Good luck, Sophie, and represent Utah well!
I Googled "spelling bee", and I found out that there will be a five-peat heading to nationals: Nicholas Rushlow. It seems as if he will continue studying even after the National Spelling Bee. It is a true passion to him and many other spellers at the Bee, but I hardly know many spellers who continue studying after their spelling bee years.
Quote from the Article: "It's pretty cool going five years in a row because not many people have done that," Rushlow said. "One of my friends, Matthew Evans, did that a couple years back. I quiz with him occasionally, so I'm trying to follow what he did."
It's true that there haven't been five-peats since 2008: Tia Thomas and Matthew Evans.
Tia told me that even if the spelling bee is over, she used all that time and dedication to other things. She has done very well in the Science and Engineering Fair, even if she never advanced to the international level, and she has been the National Bible Bee three times.
I'll admit that I still study spelling when I find time. I still love to highlight and look up words when I read, I have enjoyed studying languages and actually researching many cultures. In Biology, I enjoy memorizing and studying roots that are found in many science terms. In French, I always read my French dictionary and write down several interesting words and/or words that I had seen in the spelling bee (my French teacher seems to use the term devoirs - homework. Devoir was the actual word used). In English, we have Word of the Day, and we have a wall of words. In the front is the word, and in the back, it has the information. We play games and study roots to help us remember them.
There will be more final local spelling bees soon, and many spellers have already qualified for nationals. I wish everyone the best of luck!
The Canspell National Spelling Bee will take place on March 28. The top three spellers from Canada will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Good luck to the 21 spellers!
The Utah Valley Spelling Bee will be on March 17 at the Scera Theatre in Orem. (I got the date wrong on an earlier post, so please ignore that other post). Whoever wins that Bee will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
