Martha's Vineyard Patch Whiz Kid: Super Speller Olivia Jacobs

Name: Olivia Jacobs 

Age: 12

School

Accomplishment: On Friday, March 18, Tisbury School seventh grader Olivia Jacobs won the annual Island-wide Spelling Bee, in which she competed against six of the Island’s best spellers. This isn’t the first time Olivia captured the title. She was last year’s winner, too! In order to even get to the all-Island competition, Olivia had to win the Tisbury School Bee, which consisted of 20 kids and a record 42 rounds. On Friday, she faced off against the fellow winners of each Island elementary school's bee, plus a representative from the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School and the home-school community.

Friday's spelling bee, which took place at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, lasted 17 rounds. Olivia finally won when she spelled the word “suave” correctly. Her next step is to represent Martha's Vineyard at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, in early June. She will compete against more than 200 spellers in grades four through eight from all over the country.

Key to Awesomeness: When asked what her key to awesomeness is, Olivia said, “Study and study and study!” That meant memorizing an exhaustive list of 1200 words. How does one memorize so many words? “I learned that I am a visual learner,” said Olivia, “so I carried a white board to study hall and had my friends quiz me. If I got a word wrong, I would spell it five times on the white board.” She was also able to remain pretty cool under pressure by trying to sit as still as she could. “I was nervous,” she said, “but I wasn’t really freaking out.” You could say her secret was to stay perfectly suave about the whole thing!

Do you know a Whiz Kid?  Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to vanessa.czarnecki@patch.com.