Travilah Elementary Sends First Student to Regional Spelling Bee

It all came down to spelling the word “malice”.

With a correct answer, Travilah Elementary School’s Reethi Padmanabhan earned the right to be her school’s first ever representative at the Fourth Annual Scripps Regional Spelling Bee for Montgomery County.

Travilah had held its own school-wide spelling bees in the past, but this is the first year they’ve fully participated in the Scripps Howard event, Assistant Principal Debbie Ambrose told Patch.

“We’re very excited about it and we’re very proud of [Reethi],” Ambrose said. “She has worked really hard and after our school bee has continued to work very hard to be prepared for the next level.”

Saturday’s regional spelling bee features representatives from 37 public and private schools throughout the county. The winner will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC., which is televised live on ESPN and ABC.

Before potentially conquering the county and the country Padmanabhan, a fifth-grader, had to win Travilah’s event, featuring 35 students from third to fifth grade, Ambrose said.

The school’s spelling club provided a weekly platform for many of its competitors to prepare, the assistant principal said, adding the club has met once per week after school every week since October with the help of a parent volunteer.

“[Jill Prater] really took it on and really elevated it as just a great academic kind of competition whereas so much of children’s competition in elementary school is often athletic,” Ambrose said.

The spelling club practiced different things related to spelling, starting with spelling and word games, Prater said. As the school spelling bee approached, the club started doing team spelling contests and mock spelling bees.

“They’re great kids,” Prater said. “They’re so much fun, just volunteering their time after school for kicks to a spelling bee. I love those kids.”

The Fourth Presbyterian School will host the county spelling bee March 3 at 10 a.m. at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda. All members of the Travilah Elementary School community are welcome to attend in support of Padmanabhan, Ambrose said.

Travilah recognized Pranav Vijay as runner-up and the following students as Top 10: Alan Shen, Kelly Kimbis, Corrine Hanway, Ivan Vakatov, Ashkay Vaithiyalingam, Tesia Shi, Richard Ren and Muhammad Hashimi.