Jasmine Siefman, a 13-year-old from Kula, Maui, is busily preparing for the 77th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, D.C.

For weeks now, every day after classes at Kalama Intermediate School in Makawao, Siefman has pored over a list of 24,000 words, hoping to cram enough meaning and memory into her young mind before the competition.

"There are a lot of things to study and there really isn't enough time to finish it all," the eighth-grader said. "You just try to do as much as you can."

Siefman first became interested in spelling bees when she was in the sixth grade. She won the school contest that year. And the year after that, too. This year she made it a three-peat.

It isn't her whole life, though.

"I do like normal stuff," she said. "I like going to the beach. Before I did any spelling stuff I just was like a typical kid. I would come home and watch TV and wait forever to do my homework."

Now she'll put in four hours a day with only a few breaks.

Siefman won the state spelling bee championship, sponsored by The Advertiser, in March correctly spelling luminiferous, a word she had never heard before. But this is one confident teenager.

"I thought it wasn't really, really hard to spell," she said. "There are harder words on the list."

Siefman has never been to Washington. She says she wants to see the White House.

"I think right now I am excited," she said. "I don't think I will be nervous until I get there."

Robert Siefman will accompany his daughter on the trip, and he's one proud father. He doesn't believe his daughter has realized yet what she has accomplished.

"It hasn't gone to her head," said Siefman, a 49-year-old Maui bicycle tour guide. "She doesn't flaunt it and doesn't look for praise or publicity."

He said his daughter's reading habit — she reads several books a week — has made her a solid, articulate speller.

"She has so much knowledge of how words go together it doesn't seem strange to her," he said.

The teenager is also unflappable, he said.

"She is very cool," he said. "She doesn't really show her nerves. She has a cool demeanor."

He'll get a chance to see just how cool she is. As in years past, the bee will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

Jasmine Siefman, who doesn't seem intimidated by any of this, said nothing about the bee is easy.

"I think it is really hard," she said. "I don't expect to win, but I don't think I have a bad chance, either."

Supporting sponsors for this year's competition were Aloha Airlines, Island Heritage: A Division of the Madden Corp., and CompUSA.

Fourteen district winners received special gifts from Sears, Island Heritage, Consolidated Theatres, Anderson News Company and Scripps National Spelling Bee. Travel for Neighbor Island participants was provided courtesy of Aloha Airlines.

Prizes for the State Spelling Bee champion include an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee; a Webster's Third New International Dictionary from Merriam-Webster; a $200 Sears merchandise certificate; a $100 U.S. Savings Bond from Jay Sugarman; a PDA hand-held computer from Radio Shack; $100 cash award from Dede and James Sutherland; a gift certificate from the Hawai'i Court Reporters and Captioners Association; a special gift basket from Island Heritage; a gift tower from Enjoy Snacks; and the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Spellbound," courtesy of Thinkfilm.

Spellers who compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee win cash prizes ranging from $50 to $12,000.