Danville Sixth Grader Preparing for National Spelling Bee in D.C.

Shilpa Rao, an eleven-year-old from Danville, will represent Contra Costa County in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. in June.

Rao says she will spend spring break this week studying in preparation for the Bee.

She earned a spot in the contest after winning the Contra Costa County spelling bee Saturday, March 27 in Walnut Creek.

"I was really excited and nervous because there were 108 kids," said Shilpa of the county spelling bee.

The Charlotte Wood Middle School sixth-grader won her school's spelling bee in January. She then studied several hours a day to prepare for the Contra Costa County spelling bee.

"The day she won the school spelling bee and came home, she said she wanted to do the county spelling bee," said Satish Rao, Shilpa's father.

Satish said his daughter asked for a new unabridged dictionary to prepare for the contest.

Shilpa's eight-year-old brother, Shreyas, helped his sister study by quizing her. Her mother, Suchitra, said her daughter is a voracious reader and has a strong vocabulary.

Although her family contributed to Shilpa's success in the contest, her father said she is very self-motivated to study.

"We encouraged her but I think after the school spelling bee she did it on her own," said Satish. "We didn't push her at all. That's why we're all the more proud of her."

Shilpa was given a variety of unusual words during the Contra Costa County spelling bee, some of which you'll only find in an unabridged dictionary.  She correctly spelled ecesis, crotalic, sapajou, unau, rheological, quila and the winning word, iridescence.

The first round of the bee was written. Contestants had 15 seconds to write the given word and could not cross out letters. Shilpa missed zero words in the first round.

When contestants misspelled four words during the spelling bee, they were out.

"I was nervous the whole time but really excited when I made it to the top ten," said Shilpa. "All ten got trophies."

When the contest was down to two spellers, the rules changed. If one contestant misspelled the given word, the other had to spell that word correctly and also spell an additional word.

In the final round, Shilpa's opponent misspelled quila, a tall ornamental South American grass. Shilpa correctly spelled quila and went on to spell iridescence, winning the contest.

"The final round between Shilpa and the other girl was definitely very exciting, a nail biting moment, " said her mother, Suchitra.

Although Shilpa says she enjoys spelling, she also has other talents and interests. She'd like to study mathematics and work as a mathematician.

She also plays basketball, is a red belt in Tae Kwon Do, takes piano lessons and plays the flute in the Charlotte Wood Middle School band.

Shilpa will be busy this week reading the online version of Merriam-Webster's, Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. The book has over 4760,000 entries and is the dictionary used by judges at the national spelling bee.

The 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee is in Washington, D.C. from June 2 to 4, hosting 250 students and their families. 

The Rao family will travel to Washington at the end of May to sightsee before the spelling bee. This is Shilpa's first trip to D.C.

"I feel excited for her," said Shipa's father Satish. "I think it's a great opportunity."

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