*A 13-year-old Louisiana girl won first place in Kaplan’s first virtual spelling bee earlier this month.
Zaila Avant-Garde took home a $10,000 prize with the winning word was “Qashqai,” which refers to a migratory Turkic-speaking people of the Zagros mountains, per WAFB.com.
According to the report, the seventh grader (and 2019 New Orleans regional spelling champion) completed six days, 18 hours and 504 words through 31 rounds of spelling, and beat out 88 other young spellers.
“There were so many great spellers in the bee. To be able to compete against so many of the top spellers in the country was definitely a great experience. Even If I hadn’t won I would have been super proud of myself just for making it to the finals,” said Zaila.
Avant-Garde said she prepared for the competition with “a minimum of about 5 or 6 hours a day to study despite having a bunch of other stuff to do,” she explained. “I’d study wherever and whenever I could — whether it was while I was eating breakfast, riding in the car, or even while I was on a short break during basketball practice. But mostly I’d just sit at my desk — turn on a podcast, an old-time radio show, or some music — and study words as fast and as carefully as I could via the help of many different spelling resources.”
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Zaila also holds the Guinness World Record title for “the most bounce juggles in one minute.”
In addition to the $10,000 prize, Zaila took home a championship trophy.
“It was a hard-fought, well-deserved win for an inspiring young woman, and we couldn’t be happier for Zaila,” said Dan Strafford, Kaplan’s senior manager of new media. “We also couldn’t be prouder of all of the spellers, as this was an incredibly talented, impressive group. These spellers have worked so hard for a chance to demonstrate their skills, which is why we were glad to work with Hexco to give them this opportunity.”
Zaila offers this advice to students looking to pursue competitive spelling, “Study hard and enjoy the process. Being a competitive speller is such a meaningful and beneficial pursuit. While studying I’ve learned so much about linguistics, history, perseverance, and so many other things. The skills that you learn as a competitive speller are skills that will benefit you for the rest of your life.”
This was the first year of the Kaplan Online Spelling Bee, launched after the Scripps National Spelling Bee was cancelled due to COVID-19.
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