Sanjay Kottapalli will travel to Washington, D.C., in May with fire in his eye and a few hundred difficult-to-spell words tucked into his memory banks.
Sanjay, 12, the sixth-grade Clarendon Hills Middle School student, qualified for the 82nd Annual Scripps Spelling Bee finals after winning the DuPage County Regional Spelling Bee Feb. 25. He competed against 30 other students from fourth- through eighth-grade.
Last year, when Sanjay lived in Rockford, he won the Winnebago/Boone County Regional Spelling Bee and competed in the national finals, making it through the preliminary round before dropping out in the quarterfinals.
“It definitely motivated me to go back and do better this time,” Sanjay said.
Sanjay said he practices for the spelling bee by trying to memorize the 1,000 words from a list supplied by Scripps officials, with the help of his father, Madhu, and mother, Madhavi.
“If I get one wrong, they help me add it to a list of the words I have problems with so we can focus on them,” Sanjay said.
Memorizing up to 1,000 words is all but impossible, Sanjay said, so he relies on using phonetics and word origins to help solve difficult words.
“When I won the regional last month, the word I spelled correctly to win was of Italian origin, so I was able to work it out knowing it contained the letter ‘c’ two times in a row, not just once,” Sanjay said.
Notable
• Sanjay won the regional in February by correctly spelling the word fantoccini, which is defined as a marionette/puppet, or a show using puppets.
• While in kindergarten, Sanjay won first place in a Leggo building contest.
"able
“I still get nervous, but I try not to show it. My parents say I am pretty good at it.”
Philosophy
“If at first you don’t know the word, don’t over-complicate it. Just try to sound it out using phonetics.”
Favorites
SUBJECT Likes them all, but prefers science; least favorite, math
FOOD Mango
INTERESTS Playing tennis, reading adventure books
