All the Buzz: McClure Seventh-Grader Heads to National Spelling Bee

Western Springs’ favorite speller got a send off fit for a champion Thursday in Oak Brook.

Cook County Spelling Bee victor Alia Abiad, 13, leaves for Washington, DC, Saturday morning to compete in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

ComEd hosted the event for the McClure seventh-grader, as well as Will County champ Meghana Kamineni and DuPage County winner Richard Moraga.

“It’s just been a really wonderful experience,” Alia’s mom, Lorraine Abiad, said. “We’re just soaking it all up.”

This year’s bee features a new twist. Round one will include a multiple choice vocabulary test on Tuesday during which participants must define words from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Points from that test will be added to the points they earn during rounds two and three on Wednesday when they begin spelling.

Read about Alia's journey to the bee.

Participants’ combined performance in the first three rounds determines whether they make it into the top 50 and get to compete in the semifinals, which will be televised at 1 p.m. CST Thursday on ESPN 2.

Twelve students will make it into the finals, which are scheduled to air at 7 p.m. CST Thursday on ESPN.

Though Alia looks remarkably poised, she admitted to a few pre-bee jitters.

“Out of the preliminary rounds, I’m more nervous about the written part because the vocabulary words can be any from the dictionary,” she said. “For rounds two and three, we have (a practice list with) the words.”

Read the wonderful thank you note Alia wrote to Scripps.

Deputy Village Manager Ingrid Velkme attended the pep rally and praised Alia for accomplishing so much by seventh-grade.

“What an opportunity to go to DC for someone so young,” she said. “This will definitely shape her education and her career in the future.”

The bee is clearly the main event, but Alia plans to pencil in some fun during her trip as well. Scripps is hosting a barbecue for all the competitors on Monday. Alia’s getting a private tour of the Capitol Building on Friday thanks to her health teacher’s son, who works for a congressman.

And hopefully by this time next week, Alia will only have one word left to spell: C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N.

(P.S. From one middle school spelling bee winner to another, the word for a stiff fabric used to bind books is spelled B-U-C-K-R-A-M.)

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