State spelling champ takes talent to D.C.
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Jessica Palola correctly spelled "genealogical" to win this year's state spelling bee. But that wasn't the word that nearly stuck in her parents' throats on that Saturday in March.
Advertiser library photo • March 16, 2002
That word was "surprise."
Spelling "genealogical" correctly in March earned Jessica Palola a trip to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The competition is tomorrow and Thursday, with Thursday's final rounds televised on ESPN.
The victory earned the eighth grader from Hanalani School in Mililani an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the 75th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, which will be held tomorrow and Thursday. Her parents will accompany her, as well as her two sisters.
"I was thinking I know she is good, but she kind of surprised me a bit," said her mother, Beth Palola. "She didn't show me that she had studied a lot."
Her father, Ernesto Palola, put it more bluntly. After all, he had watched his older daughter compete at the same level and wind up third at the 1999 state bee.
"I didn't think she would win," he said. "The competition is kind of tough."
Ever since her victory over Hanalani classmate Karynna Asao, Jessica has been training hard: Three days a week after school with her coach, Hanalani Principal Wayne Yoshino, and stretches of more than eight hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
"To tell you the truth whenever she can, she studies," Ernesto Palola said. "She is a very good student. She was a straight A student. This past quarter she dropped off a little, I think because she was preoccupied on the spelling bee."
Competing at a national level, however, isn't anything new to Jessica.
When she was a fifth-grader at Lanakila Baptist School, she won the Hawai'i title for the Association of Christian Schools International and traveled to Colorado for the finals.
The next year, as a sixth grader, she again won the state-level competition and went to Washington, D.C.
Her father won't make any predictions about the upcoming competition.
"I told her study hard and try to be prepared," he said. "But you can never be really prepared for it. You never know what kinds of words will come up."
To prepare, Jessica and her principal try to learn the spelling and definitions of at least 25 to 30 words during each study session.
On their list one recent afternoon: "ouabain" and "peignoir."
"Some of these words are really tough," Yoshino said. "How she gets them I don't know."
Jessica is the school's first spelling champion so everyone is excited and anxious about what lies ahead, Yoshino said.
"She definitely has the potential to do very well," he said. "She is studying. She is working on the words on a regular basis. I think she has the ability and skills."
Yoshino doesn't want to put any more pressure on his student. He made her smile when he told her that she would owe him $50,000 if she finished fourth or lower.
"I told her she cannot finish any lower than third in the nation or she can't come back," he said.
He won't be making the trip to Washington but, like everyone else, can watch the final rounds on Thursday on ESPN, from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. and then from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., Hawai'i time.
Jessica said she is looking forward to the bee and it may come just in time. Her preparations are taking their toll. She said she surprised herself by getting this far.
"I'm very nervous and stressed," she said. "Ever since the spelling bee I got tired of words. It's a lot to study. Since it is my last year in being spelling bees I want to do my best, though."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
