Seventh-grader heads to nation spelling bee
May 23—Regional spelling bee winner Nyarah Garver, a seventh-grader at Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School, is headed to the Scripps National Spelling Bee next week, and she'll have family around the world cheering her on.
Nyarah, 12, beat out 26 other fifth- through eighth-graders at the spelling bee's qualifying event in February.
At the three-day national competition in National Harbor, Maryland, which begins Tuesday, Nyarah will test her spelling skills against a field of 245 competitors — the largest since 2019 — ranging in ages from 8 to 15, including six former finalists and three four-time national participants, according to a news release from Scripps.
Only 57 spellers return from the 2023 field, while 65 spellers have previously competed.
More than 73 percent — 180 spellers — are competing in their first Scripps National Spelling Bee, including Nyarah.
She said Thursday, May 23, that she's excited for national spelling bee.
"I'm just looking forward to meeting people who also enjoy spelling like me," she said. "Words are pretty interesting."
Nyarah enjoys reading and skiing, and has been participating in school-wide spelling bees since fifth grade.
This was the first time she made it to the regional spelling bee, and her family and friends were excited and happy for her when she won, she said.
To prepare for the competition, she practices spelling words based on how the word looks, rather than its pronunciation.
"Sometimes the pronunciation of the words is kind of weird," she said, "so I just say how it looks. When I hear the pronunciation, I think of a different pronunciation based on how the word looks, rather than how it's actually pronounced. And that helps me a lot."
Along with her friends, teachers and school staff, Nyarah will have the support of her family support — from her parents and brother, Tank, who will be at the competition with her, to her extended family in Singapore.
In the upcoming competition, there are spellers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Texas has the largest representation with 20 national competitors. California and Ohio are next with 17 each, followed by Florida, Illinois and New York with 13 each.
There are 12 competitors from outside the 50 United States, representing the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The spelling bee will air on the television network ION, which is owned by the Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company.
In 2023, the semifinals and finals drew 9.2 million viewers, an increase of 22% over its 2022 debut on ION.
The 2023 finals, live and immediate encore, on June 1 reached its largest audience since 2012 — 6.1 million viewers, an increase of 30% over 2022.
