Ladue Seventh-Grader Spells Her Way to Regional Finals

Name: Olivia Long

School: Ladue Middle School

Accomplishment: She was a finalist in the regional spelling bee competition.

Key to awesomeness: Olivia’s appearance at this year’s regional spelling bee was her third; and last year she competed in the national spelling bee.

“I was on television last year at the national competition but I didn’t make it out of the prelims,” she said. “I’ll probably start studying during the summer to get ready for next year’s competitions.”

Olivia studies by looking at lots of words from a certain origin and recognizing patterns and letter combinations. “One you see them enough, you recognize a pattern,” she explained.

What makes her accomplishment even more amazing is that English is not her first language. “I was born in Boston but my first language was Chinese, or Mandarin,” Olivia said. She’s also studying Spanish in school.

In addition to competing in spelling bees, she takes ballet and jazz dance classes, plays piano, is on her school’s science Olympiad team, and is trying out for the springboard diving team.  This Whiz Kid also competes in Math Counts, a math competition similar to spelling bees.

How does she do it all?  “I have to be efficient with time. I don’t spend time watching TV.”

Want to nominate a Whiz Kid? Send your choice with jpeg headshot and information to the editor: james.baer@patch.com.