National Speller
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Originally published 01:32 p.m., May 16, 2008
Updated 01:32 p.m., May 16, 2008
Photo by Bobbi Mlynar
Emporia Middle School eighth-grader Nishat Yasmin poses with some of the memorabilia she has received for her upcoming participation in the National Geographic National Spelling Bee. Nishat will represent Kansas in the competition.
Nishat Yasmin will take her parents, her 6-year-old sister and her lucky charm bracelet along when she goes to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 29.
The trip will be a homecoming of sorts for most of the family. Her parents, Shireen and Mohammad Chowdhury, and 3-year-old Nishat lived in Baltimore, Md., before coming to Emporia about 10 years ago.
Nishat said she feels both eager and anxious about the competition. Activities and outings are planned for the spellers during their time in the nation’s capital, and she’s already received four T-shirts with spelling bee logos for her and her family, as well as a commemorative certificate and a watch inscribed with “Scripps National Spelling Bee 2008.”
Any anxiety is directed more toward how her luck will run than fretting about whether she’ll know how to spell the words.
“It’s mainly luck, and depends on what word you get,” she said in an interview early this week. “... I never planned to even get this far in the first place. Just making it to nationals, I’m happy.”
Nishat said that study time has been elusive, just as it was for the local, county-wide and regional spelling bees she won on her way to the finals.
“I probably haven’t been studying as much as I should have, but that’s because I’ve been pretty busy with school work and the concert,” she said.
Nishat is deeply involved in instrumental and vocal music, drawing, writing poems, talking on the phone and hanging out with friends and spending time on the Internet.
“I love reading,” she added. “Sometimes I read a book a day when they’re good.”
And spelling skills are often the natural byproduct of a solid reading habit, so copious spelling drills may not be necessary.
“Every single time I study something really hard, I end up making myself really nervous,” she said.
She has studied, though, looking at previous bee lists and reading through a book specifically designed to teach spelling.
“This is the first time I’ve had to go through a spelling book and there’s so many rules to memorize,” she said.
Nishat is likely to go over the lists more as the national bee approaches.
For the regional bee held in Topeka, she and two friends — Chaitali Patel and Megann Olsson — went to the Flinthills Mall to go over a list of words used in an earlier competition, she said.
“And for four hours, we went through the entire thing and I memorized all of them,” Nishat said. “My friends are a really big help.”
Nishat was honored this morning at Emporia Middle School with a surprise reception sponsored by Emporia State Federal Credit Union, Navrat’s, Dolly Madison, KVOE and the Emporia school district.
Nishat’s 10 EMS eighth-grade team teachers were in charge of decorations and collected donations to present to the youngster in the form of an oversized check, according to information from Susie LeGault, marketing director for ESFCU. Ann Coulson, president of the Emporia Parent Teacher Council, presented spelling books to libraries at EMS and Lowther north and south intermediate schools in honor of Nishat. The books have name plates inside donated by Town Crier Bookstore.
Leaders in the city, county and school district participated in the reception, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius sent a message to Nishat to be presented during the event.
Nishat said she is only slightly uneasy about what lies ahead in Washington. She knows she can spell well and is hoping for some lucky draws on the words as she represents the Emporia school district and the state of Kansas.
“This is nationals,” Nishat said. “This is really big stuff and I really don’t know what to expect, so I’ll just try my best and see what I can do.”
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