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College sponsors youngest competitor鈥檚 trip to national spelling finals

Until this spring, when he stepped into the ring with 284 of the nation鈥檚 top spellers 鈥� more than 80 percent of them 12 or older 鈥� in Washington, D.C., 9-year-old Cameron Keith鈥檚 stiffest competition was his kid sister Zoe, 7.

鈥淪he was mad she didn鈥檛 win,鈥� Cameron says coolly of the pitched battle the siblings waged for spelling supremacy at Boulder鈥檚 Friends鈥� School in February.

鈥淭hey were neck and neck. Everybody else was out and they went back and forth, back and forth,鈥� says their mother, Synte Peacock, a climate scientist and author.

But Zoe was the only one of Cam鈥檚 rivals who got to enjoy a trip to the nation鈥檚 capital for the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals in May, where Cam was the youngest of 285 competitors. The Boulder Bee was sponsored by听Barnes and Noble, the听Boulder Valley School District,听Rotary International听and the CU-Boulder听College of Arts and Sciences.

The kids and their parents swam, visited the Lincoln and Martin Luther King memorials, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art and other museums and enjoyed a Memorial Day picnic.

"I want to go back for as long as I possibly can.鈥�

鈥淚t was really good to have (the college) help pay for our travel,鈥� Cameron says. 鈥淥therwise, it would have been much harder for us all to go.鈥�

Of course, all that fun was just a sideshow to the real purpose of the trip鈥擟am鈥檚 competition with 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds for spelling supremacy. He performed well on the written spelling test but couldn鈥檛 match the vocabulary skills of his much-older competitors, just 49 of whom went on to the semifinal round.

鈥淭his was really, really tough,鈥� Peacock says. 鈥淢y husband and I could barely get any of the words!鈥�

Here鈥檚 how hard: For their school competition, Cam and Zoe studied a list of 450 spelling and vocabulary words. For the regional competition, Cam drilled on a 1,600-word list鈥攚ords like 鈥減erspicacity,鈥� 鈥淒avenport鈥� and 鈥渉allux.鈥� And for the national bee? A whopping 27,000 words.

But after his first taste of competition, Cam is eager to come back. He took full advantage of his ringside seat on stage with the 10 finalists and took note that this year鈥檚 co-champions were, respectively, fourth- and fifth-year participants.

鈥淚 want to go back for as long as I possibly can,鈥� he says.

And that, he now knows, means he鈥檚 going to have to make the leap from talented rookie to hard-working veteran. He will not only continue to tackle that monster vocabulary list but also study Greek, Latin, and even French roots.

As his mother says, 鈥淎t this level, you can鈥檛 just luck your way to the top.鈥�

He certainly won鈥檛 lack for motivation鈥攐r competition鈥攃onsidering who sits across from him at breakfast every day.

鈥淗is little sister wants him to hurry up and win it,鈥� Peacock says, 鈥渟o she can go and do the same.鈥�

Clay Evans is a free-lance writer in Boulder.