St. John’s Prep Eighth Grader Competes This Week in Scripps National Spelling Bee

(KNSI) — The third time was the charm for Emmaline Bushman of St. John’s Prep when it came to the spelling bee.

This week, all of her hard work will come to a head on a national stage as she competes in the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The eighth grade student says studying is like cramming for a comprehensive test. “A lot of the words are really crazy. For the first two rounds of the preliminaries, there’s a list you can study, but then after that, it can be any word of the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary. So, that makes it a lot more difficult.”

Bushman had to win a competition at her school, followed by a regional bee, before qualifying for the national event. The words have gotten progressively harder at each stage. ‘Olympics’ got her past the SJP level. To take the crown for central Minnesota, she had to nail ‘honorarium.’

Her interest in spelling is fueled by a love of reading. That passion for books almost cost her a chance at orthographical excellence. She jokes, “I was even thinking, maybe I just prefer to get second then it can be done. And also the person who got second got a Barnes and Noble gift card. So, I was like, ‘Hmmmmm.'”

Instead, she gets an all expense paid trip to the nation’s capital for the milestone edition of the event. There will be some sightseeing with family, and the group that organizes the event works in some fun as well.

To watch Bushman in the preliminary round on Tuesday, tune into Bounce XL, which is available on many streaming services. It runs from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The quarterfinals are also on BounceXL, Wednesday morning. What most think of as the bee is the two-night broadcast on Ion television. It will air on Wednesday and Thursday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

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