Alleena Villaluz, a seventh grader at Saipan International School, will represent Micronesia at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 28.
ALLEENA Villaluz, a seventh grader at Saipan International School, will represent Micronesia at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 28 as overall winner of the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee held on Guam on March 3.
In an interview with Variety on Thursday, Villaluz said it was her first time to compete at a regional competition.
She said she had to first win at the school level, beating other students from grades 3 to 8 at SIS.
Villaluz said she had two weeks to prepare for the school competition, and then a further two weeks of preparation for Guam.
On Guam, she competed against approximately 60 other contestants from Guam, the CNMI, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Villaluz said the first round was single eliminations, meaning that if she misspelled a word that would be the end of her participation.
The words increased in difficulty the longer the competition went on, she said.
She was “surprised” to make it all the way to the end.
The words she correctly spelled in the final rounds were “sieve” and “benignant.”
“I didn’t think I was going to win because I didn’t have too much time to prepare,” she said. “I thought I wasn’t going to win so I just planned to eat at the restaurants and go to the mall [on Guam]. I felt really surprised and shocked…to win but I am proud of myself because I get the chance to represent the Micronesian region.”
SIS Headmaster Dr. Ron Snyder said Villaluz is also an award-winning debate team member who will travel to Dallas, Texas later this year to participate in another competition. She also helped SIS achieve victory in a Math Court team competition the day before she traveled to Guam for the Regional Spelling Bee.
Villaluz said she believes that academic competitions will help her achieve her career goals.
“After I graduate from college, I plan to become a lawyer. These events will help me do that,” she said.
She will have two months to prepare for the national Spelling Bee, which will be held in Washington, D.C. Her travel will be funded by the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
