Written by Erika Chavez - Bee Staff Writer
This article originally appeared in The Bee on March 8, 2007 on page B1
Words like "verbigerate," "tachyon" and "intertrigo" would leave most people scratching their heads -- but they're no match for 11-year-old Josephine Kao.
The Roseville sixth-grader won the 24th annual Central Valley Spelling Bee on Wednesday for the second consecutive year, cementing her status as the region's top speller.
On May 30, she will head to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. She competed there last year and finished 45th.
"Hopefully I will do better than last year," said Josephine, who is home-schooled through the Visions in Education charter school. She studied words and their roots for two to four hours per day. "But my main goal is to have fun."
The spelling bee, sponsored by The Bee, took place at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in east Sacramento.
The competition drew 66 gifted spellers culled from more than 200,000 eligible students in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, Solano, Sutter, Nevada, Yuba and Colusa counties.
The event started out simply with words such as "algebra" and "protagonist." Soon, the contestants were being felled by more obscure words such as "picaresque" (having to do with sharp-witted vagabonds or rogues), "subclavian" (situated under the clavicle) and "stalag" (a German prisoner-of-war camp).
The spellers dwindled, but the finalists pressed on through several bruising rounds. Event organizer Molly Evangelisti grew worried.
"I was starting to get nervous about running out of words," she said.
Jason Loucks, who won the spelling bee in 2005, placed second this year. He stumbled on the word "goldwynism," which is an unintentional misuse of an idiom. The word was coined after movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, who was known for malapropisms such as "Keep a stiff upper chin" and "Include me out."
This will be Loucks' final year competing in the regional spelling bee. It's the last year the eighth-grader will be eligible.
"It's kind of disappointing, but it will free up my day a lot more," said Loucks, who studied words for two hours per day to prepare for the competition.
Loucks planned to take solace in his new iPod Nano, one of the prizes he received, along with an engraved trophy.
Like Josephine, Loucks is home-schooled through a group called Sacramento Christian Organization of Parent Educators, or SCOPE.
Josephine received a $100 savings bond, a dictionary, a one-year subscription to an online encyclopedia and a large trophy.
Last year's trophy is at home. This year, she plans to give the trophy to her charter school program to thank them for their support.
"When I went to Washington last year, my school said goodbye at the airport, and they were also there to welcome me home," she said.
How will she prepare for the national bee in May?
"I'm going to study and study," she said. "There's no other way to do it."
She should know. Of the words she spelled with aplomb in the final rounds, "a lot of them were ones I happened to study in the last week," she said.
Karen Wong, a sixth-grader at Joseph Sims Elementary School in Elk Grove, took third place at Wednesday's event.
Contact N.I.E.
For more information on the educational services provided by The Sacramento Bee, write to: Educational Services Manager, The Sacramento Bee, P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852. You may also reach the Educational Services Department by phone at (916) 321-1785, by fax at (916) 326-5500, or by email at nie@sacbee.com.
Thank You
Major funding for the California Central Valley Spelling Bee is provided by River City Bank. Thank you for your support.
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