BENTONVILLE -- Arkansas' only representative at the Scripps National Spelling Bee will be one of the younger participants, but the age factor doesn't seem to intimidate her.
Pavani Chittemsetty of Bentonville will compete against 284 young people from across the country in this week's bee, which runs Tuesday through Thursday in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington.
Spelling bee format
The Scripps National Spelling Bee begins with preliminaries Tuesday. The preliminaries consist of a multiple-choice test, which includes spelling and vocabulary questions. The preliminaries continue Wednesday with two rounds of verbal spelling on stage Wednesday.
A maximum of 50 spellers are chosen to advance to the finals segment of the bee Thursday. The finals consist of rounds of verbal spelling until a champion or co-champions are declared. All spellers who have not been eliminated from the competition spell one word in each round. Upon incorrectly spelling a word, the speller is eliminated from the competition.
Source: SpellingBee.com
Pavani turned 10 years old last month. Only 6 percent of this year's competitors are 10 or younger. More than 80 percent are between 12 and 14, according to statistics provided by the National Spelling Bee.
Pavani reached the national bee by winning the Benton County Spelling Bee in January -- her second consecutive win at that level -- and the Arkansas bee in March. She spelled "brigadier" correctly at the state bee to clinch her first trip to Washington.
She said she's excited, but if she's feeling any pressure, she doesn't show it.
"Most of the time I don't worry about winning or losing. I just have fun," Pavani said. "Because by worrying you'll just make it worse."
Portions of the bee are scheduled to be televised Wednesday and Thursday on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN3, according to the National Spelling Bee website.
Pavani, a fourth-grader at Elm Tree Elementary School, is a Benton County native who has attended Bentonville schools since kindergarten. She started at Central Park Elementary School, spent two years at Mary Mae Jones Elementary and is in her second year at Elm Tree. She'll attend Ruth Barker Middle School this fall.
Her spelling skills became obvious early. As a first-grader at Jones Elementary she won her school's spelling bee and was runner-up at the Benton County bee. Dana Reid, her teacher at the time, called Pavani a dedicated student.
"Spelling is very hard for some students. She just picked it up. A lot of times, either you're a good speller or you're not," Reid said. "I'm excited for her. And I know she and her family have worked hard to get her to where she is right now."
Trey Ferguson said it has been a privilege to be her teacher at Elm Tree. He allows Pavani to study her spelling words in class when time permits.
"You're not going to find a student more on task and engaged and focused in everything we do here at school," Ferguson said. "She's incredibly mature. I know her parents ask her to do a lot at home with spelling bee-related practicing, and she has the type of personality that embraces that."
He added Pavani doesn't brag about her accomplishments.
"She is such an amazing young lady, and at the same time she is just so modest about it. She will accomplish anything she wants to in life," Ferguson said.
Amy Simpson, principal of Elm Tree, said her school family is proud of Pavani.
"Pavani's success brings a larger awareness to the excellence we strive for every day at Elm Tree," Simpson said.
Pavani enjoys reading and writing. She is reading the Harry Potter series now but said she's "not picky" about books. She also does a lot of crossword puzzles and other word puzzles.
Pavani's interests extend beyond words and books. She enjoys swimming and tennis and has a black belt in taekwondo, something she started doing when she was 4.
In between all those activities she finds two to four hours a day to study her spelling words, she said.
The last time an Arkansan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee was in 1995, when Justin Tyler Carroll of Wynne did it.
Pavani will be the only contestant from Arkansas this year, but several states send more than one; Ohio will be the best represented state this year with 19 contestants.
Businesses, community organizations and institutions of higher education may sponsor a spelling bee program for all schools within a specific area. Sponsors agree to organize and run a spelling bee that sends its champion to the national bee. The Arkansas state spelling bee is sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Pavani said she doesn't have high expectations for herself in this year's national spelling bee, but she'll use the experience to help prepare for next year's competitions. Her chances of returning to the national bee are good considering about one out of every four spellers at this year's event has been there before.
Pavani is the daughter of Dhana Varikunta and Murali Chittemsetty. Varikunta said it's a "long journey" to success at the national spelling bee, but Pavani is cut out for it.
"She has a good brain and a lot of patience," Varikunta said.
NW News on 05/22/2016