Zaila Avant-garde: Genius, 14, becomes 1st African-American to win National Spelling Bee in US
- Louisiana native, Zaila Avant-garde, has become the first African-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition
- The 14-year-old speller triumphed after correctly spelling a type of tree called Murraya
- The 93rd edition of the Scripps National Spelling Bee was held on Thursday, July 8, 2021, in the United States
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A 14-year-old from Louisiana, Zaila Avant-garde, has made history as the first African-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in the United States.
The 2021 edition of the national competition was held on Thursday, July 8, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, USA.
The New Orleans indigene triumphed over her contenders to emerge as the winner, becoming the first-ever African-American contestant to win in 93 editions of the competition.
Source: UGC
The only Black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998, according to edition.cnn.com.
Winning the championship
Avant-garde won after correctly spelling a type of tree called Murraya, previously navigating her way through words like "querimonious," "solidungulate," and "Nepeta," to clinch the championship.
Thursday's victory is just one in a long list of achievements for the teenager.
On Instagram, where she has a following of over 14,000 people, she has shared her journey toward the national spelling bee, as well as clips of her playing basketball.
In addition to her recent championship achievement, Avant-garde was the Guinness World Records title holder for most bounce juggles in one minute.
The National Spelling Bee competition began with 209 spellers, ranging from 9 to 15 years old, from five countries: the US, the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana and Japan. And 11 contestants entered Thursday night's final.
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Man earns a degree in Applied Science
Earlier, Briefly News reported after earning his undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics, a Twitter user, AhmedSQRD, has celebrated the feat on social media.
Announcing the achievement on his Twitter page, he disclosed that he plans to further his education with a postgraduate degree.
''Your boy's a Stanford grad! I'm grateful to graduate with honours in applied math and continuing onto my master's in CS next.''
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Source: Briefly News
Maryn Blignaut (Human-Interest HOD) Maryn Blignaut is the Human Interest manager and feature writer. She holds a BA degree in Communication Science, which she obtained from the University of South Africa in 2016. She joined the Briefly - South African News team shortly after graduating and has over six years of experience in the journalism field. Maryn passed the AFP Digital Investigation Techniques course (Google News Initiative), as well as a set of trainings for journalists by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at: maryn.blignaut@briefly.co.za
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
