Participating In National Spelling Bee Among Many Achievements For Rahil Patel

BY CLAIRE GALOFARO
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

“Villanelle. V-I-L-L-A-N-E-L-L-E.”

That’s the word 13-year-old Rahil Patel spelled in his third and last round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Super Bowl of competitive spelling held in Washington, D.C.

“I take Latin, so I’m familiar with the roots: villa means home,” Rahil said.

The precocious eighth-grader calls Richlands, Va., in Tazewell County, home. And while some kids cried and others slept, he just tried to have a good time this week.

“It was really fun,” Rahil said of the competition. “I met experienced spellers from all over the world. There were kids from Kenya, China, even Jamaica.”

Kavya Shivashankar, 13, of Olathe, Kan., took the top honors in the nationally televised finals Thursday night. Writing out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile, Kavya rattled off the letters to “Laodicean” to win the 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee. She’ll take home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion’s trophy.

After spelling the winning word, which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics, Kavya, who was making her fourth appearance in the bee, received huge hugs from her father, mother and little sister.

Second place went to Tim Ruiter, 12, of Centreville, Va.

The bee is based on a points system. At the beginning of the competition, the 293 youngsters – ranging from third to eighth grade – completed a first-round written test before heading onto the stage for two rounds in front of about 1,200 strangers.

Rahil spelled both words in the second and third rounds correctly. But, when all was said and done, his first-round written score wasn’t quite high enough to send him to the semi-finals.

That’s nothing to sneeze at, particularly because he doesn’t consider spelling his strong suit. Rahil prefers math: He walks over to the high school every morning to take Algebra II and aspires to be a medical doctor, following a time-honored family tradition. His father, Mrugendra Patel, is a neurologist. One sister is heading to Harvard University for an entomology residency, and another is at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

Rahil’s mother, Ragini Patel, was there in Washington to cheer him on from the crowd.

“Oh! We’re very proud of him,” she said. “And he was very excited after seeing what a big affair it was. He’s going to keep spelling, keep learning.”

The National Spelling Bee is merely another merit badge for Rahil: He has placed at science fairs, Brain Games and Mathcounts competitions, and he’s spending the summer at Johns Hopkins University for a fast-paced high school biology course.

Still, he said he wished he had spent more time preparing for the bee.

“In my registration, they asked what percent of the dictionary I’d studied, and how much I planned to,” he said, giggling. “I guess they anticipate that most of the spellers that make it there have memorized a big amount. I answered 0-15 percent for both of them.”

This was Rahil’s first, and last, time at the podium. Because he will be in high school next year, he is no longer eligible to enter the spelling bee.

He won’t have any trouble filling his time, though. Coming in at just under 5 feet tall, Rahil is a mid-fielder on the soccer team, a Future Business Leaders of America member, a promising pianist, and a generally cool kid. Even though he can’t compete next year, he said he wants to encourage other kids in the area to try.

“Now that I’ve experienced this, I’d love to support any future regional winners from our area,” he said. “I’d be happy to tutor them, or tell them all about the competition.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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