Posted on: Monday, March 14, 2005
'Ewa girl crowned spelling champ
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
KANE'OHE — A 13-year-old girl from 'Ewa Beach, who wants to be either a teacher like her parents or president of the United States, won the Hawai'i State Spelling Bee yesterday by correctly spelling "campanile" and "Anschluss" in the final rounds.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser Kaneshiro, the only child of Ka'imiloa Elementary School teachers Renee and Dean Kaneshiro, won a trip for two to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. She will be accompanied by her mother.
Kaneshiro and Lee misspelled four straight words apiece in Rounds 20 to 24 before Lee spelled "oxytocia" and "pucellas," only to be matched in Rounds 25 and 26 by Kaneshiro's spelling of "achondroplasia" and "ptyalin."
Lee then misspelled "ghurry," giving Kaneshiro the chance to clinch by spelling two words in a row correctly: "campanile" (a bell tower) and "Anschluss" (a type of political union).
Kaneshiro said the clinching words were familiar to her since they were among the 3,900 words on the contest study list. "I felt confident as soon as they moved back to the list," said Kaneshiro, who said she is an avid reader of The Advertiser with an interest in environmental news.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser Lee, the Windward District runner-up, used his finger to spell out words on his name tag whenever he was struggling. "Writing is better for me to think than saying it out loud," said Lee, the son of Vicky and Ray Harwell.
Lee moved here from South Korea and didn't learn to speak English until kindergarten.
Afterward, Lee asked about the final word he misspelled.
"G-H-U-R-R-Y," he said out loud. "I know how to spell that! I just got confused by the pronunciation. I'll be back. Maybe next year I can win it."
Kaneshiro finished by spelling 23 of 27 words correctly while Lee had 21 correct spellings and five misses. Windward District champion Nicole Kim of St. Ann's School went out in the 19th round, missing "schiffli" after staying with Kaneshiro and Lee for six rounds.
The 14 district qualifiers earned $250 cash awards for their schools. In addition to the trip, Kaneshiro won a $100 U.S. savings bond from Jay Sugarman and a computer and printer from CompUSA.
Sponsors for The Honolulu Advertiser's 20th annual Hawai'i State Spelling Bee include Aloha Airlines, AIG Hawai'i, KFC, Burger King, Bank of Hawaii, 7-Eleven, CompUSA, Island Air, Aston Hotel & Resorts, Sears, Island Heritage, Consolidated Theatres, Enjoy Snacks, Radio Shack, Dede and James Sutherland, the Hawai'i Court Reporters and Captioners Association and the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Jasmine Kaneshiro, a seventh-grader at Hawaii Baptist Academy, won the competition at Windward Community College's Paliku Theatre. After the field of 14 was narrowed to two, Kaneshiro outlasted Jonathan Lee, 14, a St. Anthony Parish School seventh-grader, in a head-to-head final that stretched to seven rounds after each student missed several words.
Jasmine Kaneshiro seized the opportunity to win the Hawai'i State Spelling Bee yesterday after her final opponent, Jonathan Lee, misspelled "ghurry." Kaneshiro's mother will accompany her to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.
"English is my favorite subject and I enjoy writing and reading," said Kaneshiro, who qualified for the State Bee by placing first in the Honolulu District Bee. "But I don't like the technical side of English, like analyzing sentences. I like to write."
Jonathan Lee and Jasmine Kaneshiro congratulate each other upon becoming the final contestants in the Hawai'i State Spelling Bee. Runner-up Lee vowed to return, saying, "Maybe next year I can win it."
