On to day 2 for Oyster Bay speller at National Spelling Bee
Safiullah Sajid, a seventh grader at Locust Valley Middle School, was used to watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee on television.
This year, he is competing in it, and so far, so good.
Safiullah, 13, is one of 234 spellers from across the country and around the world gathering this week in National Harbor, Maryland to compete for the national championship.
In preliminary rounds Tuesday, Safiullah correctly answered three rounds of questions and advanced to the quarterfinals scheduled for Wednesday morning. Semifinals are to be held Wednesday afternoon and the finals are set for Thursday. The champion will receive a $50,000 cash prize.
Nearly two thirds of the spellers who competed Tuesday were eliminated.
In about two minutes, Safiullah correctly spelled “corsair,” a pirate of any kind or period, and “bennet,” a European herb with long, yellow flowers and leaves that features narrow lobes arranged on opposite sides of the main vein so as to resemble a feather. He also correctly answered a question on the meaning of “promontory,” land protruding into a body of water beyond the coastline.
Last year, Plainview middle-schooler Bhavana Madini won third place at the National Spelling Bee, taking home $15,000 in prize money.
In an interview last week at his Oyster Bay home, Safiullah, known as "Safi," said he was looking forward to the trip but also aware of the challenge that awaits him.
“I feel excited because I want to meet new people,” he said. “I'm kind of nervous because there's going to be a lot of smart and intelligent people there. It's going to be a hard competition.”
Safiullah Sajid, 13, a 7th grader at Locust Valley Middle School, holding his trophy for winning the ScholarSkills Long Island Spelling Bee in March, will compete this week in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland.
Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Indeed, it is.
Of the hundreds of spellers this year, 45 previously competed in the national competition; 23 have relatives who are former national competitors, and four were finalists in 2021, including three who tied for fourth place, according to the E.W. Scripps Company, which administers the National Spelling Bee.
Along with the United States, the contestants, ranging from ages 7 to 15, come from the Bahamas, Canada, Germany and Ghana. There are also spellers from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
“It’s beyond competitive,” said Brian Vieira, executive director of ScholarSkills for STARS, an education nonprofit based in upstate New Windsor that sends the Long Island regional champion to the national event. His organization pays for the hotel cost during the week.
Vieira pointed to 2019 when eight contestants were crowned co-champions after the competition ran out of challenging words. "Scripps couldn’t produce a winner," he said.
The 86 schools in Nassau and Suffolk counties with students vying for a shot at the National Spelling Bee had their own competition first, according to Vieira. He estimated each school had between 30 and 100 spellers, depending on school size. The champions then took a written test, with the top 35 scorers advancing to the ScholarSkills Long Island Spelling Bee held in March.
There, Safiullah took first place with his championship-round word “gabbro.” When he spelled it correctly, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
“With the final word, he just smiled and nailed it,” Vieira said. “He has eaten all these words whole,” referring to the 4,000-word list from Scripps that serves as the official study resource for the competition.
Merriam-Webster defines "gabbro" as “a granular igneous rock composed essentially of calcic plagioclase, a ferromagnesian mineral, and accessory minerals.”
Though his task this week appears daunting, Safiullah said he is up to the challenge.
“I feel ready. I feel confident. I worked hard,” he said Sunday, shortly after arriving at the hotel with his mother, Dr. Saira Sajid, a physician.
Since January, Safiullah has spent hours every day studying and practicing, usually with his parents and sometimes his brother and cousins.
"Schedule," in fact, is his favorite word.
“My parents always say: ‘when you have a schedule, and you write down what you are going to do throughout the day, your day always stays good,’” he said.
Each time before he's called to spell, Safiullah said, he feels calm.
“I take a few breaths,” he said. “I try to clear my mind and I play.”
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
