CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Scripps National Spelling Bee begins May 27 with the preliminary rounds.
This year’s competition is all the buzz as the Spelling Bee is celebrating its 100-year anniversary. Now, another local student is competing.
Since the event started back in 1925, there have been three winners from the Tampa Bay region. The first was Nupur Lala in 1999, and most recently, we’ve had back-to-back champions. Dev Shah won the Bee in 2023 and just last year Bruhat Soma won.
WATCH Local student competes in Scripps National Spelling Bee
ABC Action News spoke with Bruhat days before he left to attend this year’s National Spelling Bee in Maryland. This time, he will have a different perspective as a spectator.
Bruhat told ABC Action News that winning last year was the most exhilarating and rewarding experience of his life. He loved having the community support him.
“I wasn’t expecting all of that. They just all came out to support me. It shows me that I am not alone in everything. It shows me that my community is there for me and my family, no matter what. And that just makes everything really special. We all have each other’s backs. Whenever someone does something great, we all go and celebrate,” said Bruhat.
We also asked Bruhat what advice he’d like to give this year’s spellers as they head into the competition.
“Enjoy bee week! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It is probably one of the best weeks you’ll ever have in your life if I am being honest. So, enjoy the experience, there will be a lot of people from so many different places. So, make friends with new people, learn about people because all of you have something in common, and that is your love for words and spelling,” explained Bruhat.
243 spellers are competing this week in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, including one from the Tampa Bay area.
Vlada Kozhevnikova is a sixth grader from Clearwater and attends Pinellas Academy of Math and Science.
She loves reading and wants to be an author someday, which she said helps her learn new words for the Bee.
“In the Percy Jackson book, when he was battling that monster, I think it said that the word C-H-I-M-A-E-R-A, instead of the English spelling, because the Chimera spelling with the A is British, but I didn't know that. I thought it was like an ancient form of Greek spelling of chimera, because it's a Greek monster, and it's one of the spelling bee words, because there's very many Greek and Latin roots. And it helps, because if I read mythology, I can process it,” explained Vlada.
She also told ABC Action News that there are many other tools she has used to prepare for the competition.
“I do the vocabulary. I don't do too much spelling, because it's not as hard for me. I'm an emotional person in vocabulary, and I need to narrow down the different definitions of words. But in spelling, I just think this is, and it's right because it's easier like that. So usually, I do vocabulary. Sometimes I read books for free time, just to help me with the roots,” said Vlada.
She even explained how she is able to spell a word she may now know.
“Usually I break it down, like, into like chunks, because then it's easier to remember like, because sometimes words can have words in them, like, factitious, it has the word fact in it. So, yeah, you can spell it like, when you think of it as if there's like, many words inside it,” explained Vlada.
She said being a part of the Scripps National Spelling Bee feels unreal to her but she is looking forward to every part of it.
If Vlada wins, this would be a three-peat in National Spelling Bee winners from the Tampa Bay region.
Here is the advice Bruhat wants to pass along to the next winner of the Bee.
“You worked so hard for this. You’ve gotten this. I have been in your shoes. So now it is just time to decompress and enjoy what you have deserved and what you have got from all your hard work.”
You can watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee during a live two-night event starting with the semi-finals on May 28, followed by the finals on May 29. It all starts at 8 p.m. on ION.
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