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Fifth-grader victorious at spelling bee

Published in "The Olathe News" in 2006
by Sarah St. John

Kavya Shivashankar's spelling future seems illimitable.

Kavya, a fifth-grader at Regency Place Elementary School, secured victory in the first Olathe Spelling Bee on Thursday by spelling "illimitable" correctly.

Second-place finisher Rosemary Liu, a seventh-grader at California Trail Junior High School, misspelled the word, which means limitless or without boundaries. To win, Kavya had to correctly spell "illimitable" and then "illusionist."

The Olathe News now will pay for Kavya and her family to travel to Washington, D.C., on Memorial Day weekend so she can represent Kansas as a competitor in the 79th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be broadcast on ESPN.

"I'm really excited," Kavya said after her big win.

Until this year, Kansas sent only one contestant to the Scripps bee. In any other year, Kavya would have had to win the county and state bees to go to Washington. But now that The Olathe News is sponsoring a contestant, she just ad to beat 37 other children from Olathe schools.

It was no easy task.

"It was obvious when we got to the last seven or so that they had done a lot of studying and were taking this really seriously," said Ken Roberts, Heatherstone Elementary School principal and judge at the bee.

Fourth-place finisher Aaron Phillips, a fifth-grader at Black Bob Elementary School, had reason to be nervous other than spelling. His family had planned a ski trip to Colorado over the weekend and had planned to leave the bee by 11 a.m. to catch their flight. But Aaron exceeded expectations and was still in the game at 11:05. In between rounds, Aaron's parents told bee coordinators that they wanted their son to do his best, but they were getting antsy by the time it got to the final four. Unfortunately or not, Aaron misspelled "electorally" in time for his family to be on their way to the Rockies.

Next, third-place winner Ryan Meyers, an eighth-grader at Indian Trail Junior High School, earned a sigh of relief from the audience when he correctly spelled "suffumigate" after some tense moments. But on his next turn up, Ryan went out on "smithereens."

That left Rosemary and Kavya, and "illimitable" sealed their fates. Other words that took out students in the final rounds included "mensal," "fronds," "cupola," "caucus," "stucco" and "psywar."

Rosemary said she plans to compete again next year in eighth grade, her last year of eligibility for the bee. And she's happy with her second-place finish.

"I didn't expect to do this well," she said.

Kavya said she had been studying about an hour a day in preparation for the bee by reading over possible words and having her father read the words to her. Every time she spelled at the bee Monday, she pretended to write the word in her hand.

"I enjoyed Kavya's technique," Roberts said. "She had a consistent pattern. She repronounced the word, asked for the definition, then spelled it out on her hand."

Kavya said she is looking forward to participating in the national bee, where thousands of dollars worth of scholarships will be on the line.

"I think it's going to be exciting to meet all the other good spellers," she said.

Her father, Mirle Shivashankar, said he and Kavya will increase their study time during the next few months in preparation for the event.

"But schoolwork will be first preference," he said.

Kavya's mom, Sandy Shivashankar, said she wants to make sure Kavya continues to take time for her school activities like Mathwings and Quest amidst her studying. Sandy hopes her daughter also can keep up with her extracurricular activities of ice skating, Indian dance, violin and swimming as she prepares for the Scripps bee.