Sitting before the blue light radiating off her iPad screen, eighth grader Esther Lin worked through resources like Membean, online dictionaries and physical definitions lists to prepare for one of the most notable competitions in the country: the National Spelling Bee.
Back in March of this year, Lin outperformed thirty-five students in the Akron Beacon Journal Regional Spelling Bee, earning herself a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. From May 26 through May 28, Lin and 246 other spellers will compete on live television to become the national spelling bee champion.
According to Abbott, she believes Lin is the first from Revere to have ever gone to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“I believe this is Revere’s first time ever sending someone to the Scripps National Spelling Bee from what I’ve been told. Only around 240 kids in the whole country make it to this stage of the spelling bee, so it’s a huge honor. I believe the number is eleven million students [that] participate in [the] spelling bee, so to be one of 240 out of eleven million is a huge accomplishment for [Esther],” Abbott said.
Before going onto nationals and even into regionals, Lin had to first take a vocabulary test. After, all students who met a specific threshold for the test could then enter the Revere Middle School (RMS) spelling bee, and Lin had met this threshold. Courtney Abbott heads the Revere branch of the spelling bee, and she oversaw the Revere competition this school year.
“The [RMS spelling bee] . . . was over forty rounds long [before we got] our champ. The top two alone had to battle [about] twenty-three rounds alone, just the two of them. For Esther, words are her thing, because along with the spelling bee, she also is the only representative from the middle school to go to the state championships for Power of the Pen, [a state-wide creative writing competition],” Abbott said.
After competing and winning the Revere branch of the spelling bee, Lin had to take another test before she continued onto the regional competition in Akron.
“Mrs. Abbott had to enroll me to take a test to get into regionals. This test was like thirty questions and then I remember I got like three wrong on it. . . . [Then, the regional organizers] take around forty people from the region and send them into the regional spelling bee,” Lin said.
In preparation for the bee, Lin often spends her time looking through dictionaries, working through Membean and reading more materials. Dissimilar to the other two competitions, the National Spelling Bee requires students to also know the definitions of words, a skill Lin had not prepared before.
“Honestly, I feel like spelling isn’t really something that comes naturally to me. I feel like spelling is something that I’ve learned in the same way that I learn concepts—just by studying them,” Lin said.
Nikki Bratt, Lin’s current English teacher, has spent the last year working with Lin. Over that time, Bratt has come to learn more about Lin and her abilities in the English language.
“[Esther] is exceptional. I mean, she really is a person who is able to communicate verbally, and [she has] written just exceptionally. She is deliberate and has a vast vocabulary; it sounds bizarre, but she has a vast vocabulary, and it is really helpful in her writing,” Bratt said.
On May 26, Esther will perform in the preliminary competition, televised on Scripps Sports. The quarterfinals will also be televised on Scripps Sports, and the semifinal and final competitions will be televised on ion.
