The Spell of Success: Mr. Duggal Goes to Washington

[FULL STORY]

On May 29, Newman 6th grader (soon to be 7th) Srijan Duggal traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. After winning the New Orleans Regional competition, and sponsored by the Times-Picayune, Srijan was set to compete against 274 other spellers in the Bee. His advisor, Kathryn Simons accompanied him on the trip, sending us updates on his progress in the competition. Read on for this tale of one speller and a whole lot of words.

May 31, 9:56 p.m.

Hi everyone –

I arrived in National Harbor, MD (right across the Potomac River from Alexandria, VA) this afternoon and my first order of business was to go to the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, site of the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee, to pick up my Bee Week Guide and name badge, which will serve as my ticket to the competition. The place is huge! I can’t wait to go into the ballroom tomorrow to watch all of the spellers.

 

Srijan took the “Round One Test” this morning. Here is the list of words:

1.    fourteen
2.    drowsy
3.    wasteland
4.    secrecy
5.    generate
6.    normalize
7.    youthquake
8.    unswerving
9.    remembrance
10.    electromagnetic
11.    appointee
12.    oracular
13.    theatricality
14.    benediction
15.    quietive
16.    jiggety
17.    infobahn
18.    calenture
19.    bonobo
20.    pinealectomy
21.    Kafkaesque
22.    monodomous
23.    vitelline
24.    acetarious
25.    hukilau

Srijan thinks he spelled 20-22 of the words correctly, which seemed to be about the same as most of the spellers he talked to after the test. Many of them were words that he’d practiced. He did hear that one speller got them all. Spellers earn one point for each correct word. Interestingly, nine of the words on the list I just carefully typed are underlined in red, indicating that Microsoft thinks they are misspelled!

This evening, I went to dinner with Srijan, his parents, his sister, his great aunt and uncle, and also two cousins that are visiting from India. His cousin is a super smart college professor, and she was helping him practice all sorts of really hard words. The only assistance I was able to provide was my smart phone, which we used to verify some of the spellings!

Rounds 2 and 3 are tomorrow. Each speller spells one word onstage per round. A correct spelling adds 3 points to the speller’s preliminary score.

Srijan is Speller 96. Spellers 1-137 are onstage between 8:00 – 9:45 a.m. and then 1:15 – 3:30 p.m. These rounds will be broadcast live on ESPN3.

I’ll write more tomorrow after Round 2 and send some pictures.

Ms. Simons

June 2, 10:45 a.m.

Hi everyone –

Srijian correctly spelled his Round 2 word – harrumph (which means 'to clear the throat in a pompous way') – so he earns 3 more points for his preliminary score! It’s been an exciting (and, a little nerve-racking) morning.

We arrived at the ballroom at 7:30 a.m., and it’s an enormous room with two screens on either side of the stage. What you can’t see in the picture below is that there are several television cameras positioned all along the back of the room. If you look at the screen to the right of the stage, you’ll see a metal arm with something hanging from it in front of the screen. That’s a camera, too, that can be swiveled and moved around once the spelling starts.
 
Before the spelling started, we were able to get a picture of Srijan next to the announcer’s desk. You can see the speller’s microphone on the stage just over his left shoulder. Also, in case you’re wondering, there was a dress code – no shorts allowed!

 

Around 7:45 a.m., they called the first group of spellers (#1-137) up to the stage. At this point, parents, friends, teachers, siblings, and others rushed to the stage with their cameras trying to get a picture of their speller. There were so many picture-takers that the media people were taking pictures of all of taking pictures of the spellers!

 

Promptly at 8:00 a.m. the spelling started. After each speller, his/her word was projected on the screen. Incorrect spellings were posted in red. Out of the 137 spellers in Group 1, only 11 words were spelled incorrectly, which was an incredible feat. The words were from all different types of origins: Latin, French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Indian, German, Greek, Italian.  So much of this is luck – Speller #15 gets joule, while Speller 33 gets schadenfreude!

At 9:09 a.m., it was time for Speller 95, so Srijan was waiting behind him. At that point, my stomach was doing flip flops! Speller 95 using the “finger writing” technique to help himself spell bioluminescent.

 

 

At 9:11 a.m., it was Srijan’s turn. His profile was projected on the screen to the right of the stage.


Dr. Bailly, the announcer and 1980 National Spelling Bee Champion, announced his word. Srijan says that he knew it right away, but he took his time and asked for the definition, language of origin, and sentence. His parents and I had been telling him to do this beforehand, if for no other reason than to be on TV longer.
 

Well, he correctly spelled his word, and we all let out a huge sigh of relief!

 

When all of the spellers in Group One were finished, we went out into the lobby area where there were banners and displays of previous Bees. Srijan let me take his picture in front of the 2011 Spellers display.

 

Finally, he was interviewed by a Hearst Television reporter.

 

While Group 2 (Spellers 138 – 275) completed the Round 2 spelling, we had time to get something to eat, rest, and for Srijan, study some words. We had to be back at the Ballroom for 12:45 p.m. because Round 3 spelling started at 1:15 p.m.

June 1, 2:56 p.m.

Hi –

Srijan spelled his round 3 word, bibliognost, correctly. We found out that Srijan scored a 21 on the written test, so with his two correct spellings today, his total score is 27.

We're having tea now and then will go back to the ballroom at 5:00 p.m. for the announcement of the semi-finalists. They take no more than 50 spellers. In the past the cut-off has been as low as 27, but we think this time it'll be higher because approximately 25 percent of the spellers are return spellers.

Our fingers are crossed!

June 1, 5:43 p.m.

Hi Everyone –

The qualifying score for the semifinalists was 29, so with only 27 points, Srijan and 233 other spellers were eliminated from the Bee. Of the 41 semifinalists, 25 of them are “Bee Repeaters” (one of them for the fourth time!), so clearly experience makes a difference.

Unfortunately, this will be Srijan's only trip to the National Bee unless he moves out of the New Orleans metro area. The Times-Picayune is one of only two sponsoring organizations that does not allow its previous winners to compete again. The lady from The Links, who co-sponsors the New Orleans Bee with the Times-Pic, is here, and she suggested that Srijan write a letter asking for a change to the rules. While she didn’t think it could change for the 2012 Bee, maybe for 2013, when he’d be in eighth grade and still eligible to compete.

Overall, though, the day was fantastic! The words in the afternoon round seemed to be more difficult or the spellers were tired because more words were missed. Here are some of the words, including Srijan’s. One of the words today was lagniappe - the girl missed it (l-a-y-n-a-p). Guess it wouldn’t have been fair for Srijan to get that one.

 

 

June 4, 9:03 a.m.

This is it... the final update from Bee Week 2011.

After 20 rounds of spelling, an 8th grader from Pennsylvania, Sukanya Roy, won the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. To put the level of competition this year in perspective, last’s year’s champion was named after only nine rounds! Srijan and his family watched the finals live in the ballroom, while I chose to watch on TV. After watching these spellers in person, it was amazing how much we felt like we knew them.

Last night was the Awards Banquet to celebrate the accomplishments of the 275 spellers, and in particular, the 13 finalists. The ballroom was transformed into a large dining room filled with round tables. The spellers sat together in the front of the room, and then everyone else filled in the tables around them. The finalists were seated on the stage.

While we ate dinner, a slideshow ran that displayed each speller during the Bee and his/her final ranking. Srijan's rank was 42nd. There were only 41 semifinalists, so it looked like Srijan narrowly missed the cut, but in actuality, all of the competitors who don't make it to the semifinals tie for 42nd place (but we think he was really close!).

 

After dinner, there was a speaker, Ken Jennings, who holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! (74). He talked about the value of knowledge, especially spelling, in today’s world, even though we have spell-check and can Google just about anything we want. His whole speech was entertaining, but he got his biggest round of applause when he related a story about an interview he had a few years ago with a TV personality that seemed to be teasing him about being a nerd. Ken said, “Doesn’t he know… the nerds have won!”  The ballroom erupted with cheers.

At the end of the banquet, the spellers raced about the room trying to get final signatures for their Bee Keeper books. The book contains a picture and bio for each speller and staff member. During the course of the week, the spellers worked to meet all of the other spellers to get their book signed. Early in the week, Srijan got George Thampy to sign his book. George was in the Spellbound documentary, and while he didn’t win the year of Spellbound, he won the Bee in 2000.

Srijan still needed two big signatures: Dr. Bailly, the pronouncer, and Sukanya Roy, this year’s champion. We were able to get a picture with both of them.

All in all, the National Spelling Bee was amazing. It was so well-run and organized, and the support that the spellers gave each other was inspiring. I feel so fortunate that I got to share this experience with Srijan and his family.

 

 

So long from Bee Week 2011!