For weeks, 13-year-old Serena Ball’s focus has been the pronunciation, origins, roots and spelling of more than a thousand words.
The Konawaena Middle School seventh-grader spelled words called out by her family, friends, teachers and coach Georgia Goeas. She came up with creative ways to remember tricky words, such as associating M&Ms with the word imminent. Besides practicing at home, Ball would train with other members on the school’s spelling team in the library and invite other students to watch. She never missed a team practice and was diligent in her studies.
Ball’s hard work and preparation paid off last Saturday, when she became the Hawaii District Spelling Bee champ after correctly spelling the word evasion.
Twenty students from 10 Big Island schools participated in the competition at Parker School. This year’s bee lasted 45 minutes, which is much faster than previous years, and had numerous young contestants who were in grades four through six, said Hawaii Preparatory Academy teacher and humanities curriculum chair Julie Camarillo, who was in charge of the event.
Camarillo thinks spelling bees like the one Saturday are important because “students see that adults value language and the importance of standardize spelling.” She said such events also “allows for the the intellectual side of children to be recognized and celebrated.” She hoped the participants “gained poise and confidence being on stage and spelling words in front of an almost full auditorium.”
Woody Plaut, Konawaena Middle’s library media specialist, was at the bee and appreciated how the event built community and kinship among those in attendance. Plaut said he was in awe of the abilities, discipline and poise shown by all the competitors, especially as the pressure built.
What Plaut admired most about Ball was not just her ability to spell so many words correctly, but also how she stuck to her training, remained confident, had fun and even cracked a joke. After going through the typical questions allowed to be ask, he said Ball flabbergasted the judge by jokingly asking, “Can you spell it?”
After 15 rounds, Ball captured first place and Kealia Haitsuka, a HPA eighth-grader, took second. Both earned spots at the 2015 Kamaaina Kids Hawaii State Spelling Bee, happening March 20 at the New Hope auditorium on Oahu.
Ball said the best part of the district competition was meeting other students who enjoy spelling as much as her. Ball, who hopes to become a movie director someday, thinks spelling bees are important because they improve spelling, increase vocabularies and garner appreciation for weird words. She also thinks participating in such academic events will help when applying for scholarships later on.
As excited as Ball is about the win and her “good memory,” Ball knows the real challenge is about to begin with only about two weeks to prepare for the statewide competition. The winner there would earn a trip to Washington, D.C., to have the opportunity to compete in the famous Scripps National Spelling Bee.
According to its website, roughly 11 million participants from the United States and around the globe are whittled to about 300 expert spellers who compete in the national competition.
Plaut said Ball follows a long tradition of spelling bee champions and finalists from Konawaena Middle School, including Christianne Abella, Taggart Nakamoto, Talmage Nakamoto and Teagan Nakamoto. A key person often helping these students, as well as teaching them to dissect and understand the words they spell, has been Goeas.
Though Goeas retired from teaching at the school several years ago, she still continues to give back through volunteering. Goeas was known as one of the state’s top advocates for middle-level education and was instrumental in getting seventh and eighth grades separated from Konawaena High School. She is also among the few in Hawaii to earn the prestigious Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, Plaut said.