PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – A local eighth-grader is currently competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
14-year-old Sydney Graham has worked her way up from the University Academy Spelling Bee all the way to the national stage.
There are 234 spellers that qualified for the bee, and Sydney is one of 88 contestants advancing to the quarterfinals.
“It’s been really cool and fun to see all the monuments and just being here in D.C. being able to be up on the stage on a national level and it’s been really cool,” Graham said.
In order to qualify for the National Spelling Bee, Graham had to win her school spelling bee to advance to the regional competition.
After a virtual regional bee that ended in a tiebreaker, Graham secured her ticket to the national level.
“I started with school-level spelling bees and I just found out that I was good at them and we just kept going up. Up and up,” Graham said.
In 6th grade, she made it to the regional bee, but didn’t advance in 7th grade.
This year, Graham said she worked even harder to make it to D.C.
“Last year I just kinda thought that I would have all the words still in my brain and they weren’t there so I had to study harder and earn more words,” Graham said.
Graham credits her love of reading for her spelling talent.
“I read books a lot so I will just see the words and if I don’t know I’ll look them up and they just stick in my brain,” Graham said.
Words she has spelled correctly on the national stage are Stradivarius and ciliary.
Her parents say she could read words before she could talk and are proud of her dedication to accomplishing this goal.
The quarterfinals start at 8 a.m. EST.
The spelling bee will have a champion sometime Thursday.
