Fourteen students from public and private schools statewide are vying for the chance to represent Hawaii at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
The students — in grades 5 through 8 — will compete in Saturday’s Hawaii State Spelling Bee competition, having bested students at their respective schools and district levels.
The annual state competition, sponsored the past three years by the aio Foundation, saw a record-high 85 schools opt in to participate this year. The 14 finalists attend schools on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island.
A sixth-grader at Konawaena Middle School won the state competition last year after correctly spelling "billabong," while the national winner — a 14-year-old girl from San Diego — aced the word "guetapens."
Hawaii has yet to secure a national win, but Susan Eichor, president of aio, said, "I’m not just being optimistic — we have some incredible spellers this year, so I have my fingers crossed."
Saturday’s competition will be Kauai eighth-grader Sydney Brady’s second run in the state spelling bee.
"I’m so nervous. But I’ve been cramming in as many words as I possibly can in case any of them pop up," said Sydney, who attends Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School in Lihue.
Sydney said she wants to pursue a career as a news anchor and enjoys learning new words and their origins.
"It’s really fun because when you learn how words from a certain place are spelled, you get to learn how languages are different and alike," she said.
Michael Linder, a seventh-grader at Aliamanu Middle School in Salt Lake, said his passion for reading long fiction books sparked an interest to compete this year.
"I really like to read, which I guess makes me a good speller, so I thought I’d give it a try," Michael said. "I started winning, and it made me want to do better."
He said he devotes about 40 minutes each night to quizzing himself using practice lists.
A live broadcast of Saturday’s competition will air at 7 p.m. on PBS Hawaii.
