Solehi Spelling Bee Champ Wins Second Shot at Title

Watch out, Lehigh Valley spelling champs. Naomi Li is back for another round.

Li, who won last year's Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, sewed up another victory Wednesday night at the Southern Lehigh Middle School spelling bee. The hard-won victory came down to one word, Niagara. When Li spelled it correctly, she moved on to the regional spelling bee scheduled for March 22 at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem Township.

Li decided early on that she wanted to compete again this year. "Once I was eliminated at [Scripps National Spelling Bee], I thought about if I wanted to do this again one more year," said Li. "It's my last year [of eligibility], so I pulled out my monster dictionary and started studying it." Her entire family supported the decision to compete. "My little sister wants to live in Washington D.C. She had the time of her life last year."

Li used a combination of writing words she stumbled on and a spreadsheet to help prepare her for this year's competition. Going to the national competition last year was a major motivating factor. "The competition was scary at first, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. There were a lot of people like me who like learning and they had great senses of humor."

Last year, Li won with a combination of "manticore" (a mythical creature) and the championship word, "affianced" (to be betrothed). It took six final rounds before Li was declared the winner. She expects to see her runner-ups, Jesse Huang from Springhouse Middle School in South Whitehall Township and Aditya Rao from Lopatcong Township, again this year.

"They were really good," said Li of last year's competitors.

As for the 8th grader at Southern Lehigh Middle School, she's looking forward to several aspects of the competition. "It will be great to see familiar faces, and hear what the words are this year. Also, the snacks [at regionals for participants] were amazing."

When she's not studying words, Li is an active participant in the Junior String Philharmonic playing both piano and violin. She's also on the Junior Debate Team for Southern Lehigh, and a member of the National Junior Honor Society.

While Li is excited to compete, she says the title isn't really what it's about for her.

"The winner of last year's [Scripps National Spelling Bee title] gave a speech I really agreed with. You're not competing against each other; you're going against the dictionary. You're competing against the English language."