Joanne Lagatta arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1995 and didn’t want to talk about her perfect academic record and accomplishments about her resume, but other undergraduates on the vast Madison campus were unable to claim the Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion.
The 13-year-old bee winner in 1991, Lagatta struggled to adapt to life outside his country home in Clintonville, Wisconsin.
“I went, thinking I was a smart kid who won spelling bees across the nation. I’m sure I could compete with the highest academic kids. I signed up for many advanced classes that clearly had no place. “I went to the professor. He stared at me and said, ‘I know who you are. I know what you can do. You haven’t failed my class.” He pushed me through that class.
Ragatta, now 47, is now well. She is a children’s Wisconsin neonatologist, a hospital in Milwaukee. And like many former champions of the National Spelling Bee, who celebrate the 100th anniversary that begins Tuesday at a convention center outside Washington, she says the competition has changed her life for the better.
The winner of the Spell Bee is not a celebrity. Those who competed before being aired by ESPN – now aired on Aeon, owned by Scripps – are not often recognized by strangers. But they have to accept that they are forever known for their accomplishments in middle school. Google past bee champions and that’s one of the first to appear.
Many past champions continue to be involved with bees. 1980 champion Jacques Bailly is a longtime pronouncing bee. The winner, Paige Kimble, who won a year later, ran Bee as executive director from 1996 to 2020. Vanya Shivashankar, co-champ in 2015, returns as master of each spring ritual, with her sister Kavya being one of the former champions. Select Word Panel For competition.
Even for a fully advanced former champion, competition remains the cornerstone of their lives. The Associated Press spoke to seven champions about membership at the luxury club.
surgeon
2010 champion Anamika Veeramani graduated from Yale in three years and earned a medical degree from Harvard University. A resident of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, she is trained to become a craniofacial surgeon, and the intensive and disciplined approach that led her to a spelling bee title has been a throughline in her life ever since.
“You achieve a level of mastery more than a subject you wouldn’t have, and that sense of proficiency is very similar on the field,” says 29-year-old Veeramani. “If you know enough about a theme, you can really play with it and come up with things, and there is joy and joy in what you are doing.
journalist
Molly Baker was never uncomfortable about her past as the 1982 Spell Be Champion. And she is happy to raise it.
“Yeah, I was never cool,” Baker says. “I knew people who were state tennis champions, you know, but they were like nerds, in their own way. I was always kidding about it.
Baker, 55, worked as a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and wrote a book called “High Flying Adventures in the Stock Market.” She is now a freelance journalist and says there is no doubt that her spelling bee title helped her career.
“One summer in college I was an intern and was called ‘Real Life with Jane Paulie’. It was a TV news program for Evening Magazine,” says Baker. “And that was certainly part of the results of being interviewed in 1982 on Jane Pauley’s “Today” show.
Supporters
John Pennington knew he was socially troublesome when he acquired the bee in 1986. He even wore his mother’s bulky sunglasses on the bee stage, as the bright light plagued him.
When he was 40, he was diagnosed with autism. He is proud to accept it.
“I didn’t beat the national spelling bees despite autism. I didn’t win a national spelling bee by winning autism. I won the national spelling bee because of autism,” says Pennington, 53. “For me, when I heard chords being played on the piano, it felt like there were dissonant notes in the chord.
Living in Minneapolis with his wife and dog, Pennington has worked in corporate human resources for many years and is now a writer, working with the unreleased biographies of songwriter Eden Afes. He still loves academic competitions and word games, and has crossword puzzles published by the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
Superstar
Even among Spell Champions, Nupur Lala’s name is filled with respect and adoration. Her victory in 1999 was later recorded in the documentary “Spelbound,” where she kicked off A quarter century of Indian Americans who rule the bees. That doesn’t mean it was easy to be known for her linguistic glow.
“One thing that really stood out about my immediate husband, John (Masco), was that I didn’t want to play word games with all the guys I’ve dated before and with me. They avoided crossword puzzles and refused to play Scrabble,” says 40-year-old Lara. “I realized this guy is special for so many reasons, because he was the first guy who was willing to play Scrabble consistently with me.
At this point, Masko will chime through the speakerphone. “She’s still far better in crossword puzzles!”
Lara works as a neuro-oncologist at Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, New Hampshire. She prescribes chemotherapy and coordinates the management of brain and spinal tumors. And she has theories about why Spelling Champions pursue drugs and neuroscience. Because they are already intrigued by how the brain works.
“One of the things that really fascinated me after joining the Spelling Bees is eidetic memory. What I saw in the past flashes as a photo in my head, and that’s what happened between the spelling bees,” says Lara. “When I went to medical school, I had no expectations for this at all, I chose neurology.
Marathoner
Kelly Close Guaragno won the 2006 Bee in his fifth appearance with the Nationals, and learned a lot about patience along the way.
“When I saw these kids who looked so intelligent and experienced, it seemed like it was hard to understand that one day they could win the competition,” said Guaragno, 32, who works for Group Gordon, a public relations company based in New York City.
“I’m an endurance runner now. I’m a half marathon and marathon. I competed in the Boston Marathon earlier this year,” she says. “I started running a marathon and couldn’t break four hours, so I qualified for Boston and learned the way I think and process of doing it from Spellmee.”
Pure
Of the many perks that won the bee, the 16-year-old development shah, Winner two years agoI’m most proud of him getting an OP-ED about how he was featured in the Washington Post. The bees taught him to take risks Accept the outcome.
During the bees in 2023, Shah wrote “Romac.” This is a word that has an unknown word of origin that he has never seen before.
“The 40 seconds I spent spelling ‘Lomac’ showed champion characteristics rather than good spellers,” says Shah. “That’s what makes the spell bees so special. It tests not only spelling, but critical thinking, risk taking and calm.”
He passes those tests and says that Shah is in peace with being recognized forever as a Spell Champion, but “I really hope that’s not the only thing I’m known in my life.”
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Ben Nuccols has been covering Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.
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