NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — I sat down this time last year with Hampton Roads Academy student Suhani Joshi and her family, just before she left for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
This academic award winner has another accolade. For the second year in a row, the Newport News student is the regional spelling-bee champion. She’ll represent the 757 in the national spelling contest later this month.
“I knew this year I’d have to focus on language patterns rather than just blindly memorize every word I can find. That really came in handy in regionals this year,” Joshi said.
The winning word at regionals was “camionette.”
She spelled it: “C-a-m-i-o-n-e-t-t-e.”
The pronouncer confirmed, “Camionette — that’s correct,” and the crowd applauded.
“It means ‘little truck.’ It comes from French, and luckily I took French this year, so that came in handy,” Joshi said.
Suhani Joshi is our back-to-back bee champion and she is “Positively Hampton Roads.”
“All of Hampton Roads is rooting for you. We can’t wait to see how you do in the national spelling bee,” I said.
“Thank you,” Joshi replied.
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