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13-year-old Maria Wasilewski achieves a family milestone with trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week Date published: 5/27/2008
By LAURA MOYER When Maria Wasilewski of Stafford County stands onstage this week at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel, she'll fulfill a family quest. It's been 45 years since one of her uncles competed for a chance to enter the Olympics of youth spelling--the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. An aunt tried next, then Maria's mom. All got to the final rounds of their district bees, then faltered. About the time Maria's future mother was competing in suburban Maryland, her future dad won a bee in his Michigan hometown. But that bee didn't send its champion to Washington. More recently, two of Maria's older sisters were bee contenders, losing only in the final rounds of contests that would have sent them to the national stage. And then came Maria. In March, the home-schooled seventh-grader remained poised through 25 rounds of competition to win the Regional Spelling Bee, sponsored by The Free Lance-Star. Besides awarding Maria a cash prize, the paper sent her to Washington for five days of bee activities and competition that started yesterday. She's among 288 spellers from across the United States and around the world who have headed to Washington for the bee, which begins Thursday. Maria is a soft-spoken 13-year-old, the fifth of Steven and Rita Wasilewski's eight children. Her siblings are Teresa, 22; Christa, 21; Michael, 20; Kelsey, 16; Regina, 11; Dominic, 7; and Joe, 5. Like Maria, all were or are home-schooled. Her eldest two sisters are now college students, and her big brother is in the Army. Maria doesn't remember exactly when she realized she could be good at spelling, but she does think her sisters' bee experiences influenced her. She started studying a booklet produced by the Scripps bee in preparation for the 2007 Regional Spelling Bee and made it to the top three. In January of this year, she began studying again in earnest, reviewing several source lists, writing each word and defining those she didn't know. She's filled page after page in a battered spiral notebook that younger sister Regina says goes everywhere. Since her Regional Bee win in March, Maria has made liberal use of an unabridged dictionary that was among her prizes. She uses it to check word origins, pronunciations and definitions.
Date published: 5/27/2008
Yay! That is amazing I'll try harder in spelling now!
You are already a winner! Just do the best you can.
:0)
This is a very impressive young lady. Notice folks, the key to
success. There is family talent, family faith, and the smarts to
not invite the perverted contemporary American pop culture
into their home via cable. Bravo Rita and Steve!
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