[Photo: Zaila Avant-Garde via Instagram | @basketballasart)]
According to wafb.com, 13 year-old Zaila Avant-Garde, a 7th grader from Harvey, LA, beat out 88 of the best young spellers in the country to win the first-ever Kaplan Online Spelling Bee, hosted in association with Hexco Academic.
Garde, who was the 2019 New Orleans regional spelling champion, won with the word “Qashqai” (definition: a migratory Turkic-speaking people of the Zagros mountains), after a hard-fought back-and-forth with runner-up Harini Logan, a 6th grader from San Antonio, TX. Chaitra Thummala, a 5th grader from San Ramon, CA, placed third.
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“There were so many great spellers in the bee,” Avant-Garde said. “To be able to compete against so many of the top spellers in the country was definitely a great experience. Even If I hadn’t won I would have been super proud of myself just for making it to the finals.”
As she took the top prize, Avant-Garde expressed that she was “kind of confused for a second — I guess because I was a little shocked that I’d won. After that, I just felt a great sense of relief knowing that all of my hard work had led to the best possible outcome.”
Source: Zaila Avant-Garde, 13, Wins National Online Spelling Bee
