{"id":673,"date":"2018-07-07T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=69155"},"modified":"2018-07-07T05:00:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T12:00:51","slug":"reading-postcards-at-age-3-studying-obscure-word-lists-these-are-the-makings-of-a-scripps-national-spelling-bee-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/reading-postcards-at-age-3-studying-obscure-word-lists-these-are-the-makings-of-a-scripps-national-spelling-bee-finalist","title":{"rendered":"Reading postcards at age 3, studying obscure word lists: These are the makings of a Scripps National Spelling Bee finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Without the help of an outrageously priced coach or tutor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/the-national-spelling-bees-new-normal-200-an-hour-teen-spelling-coaches\/2017\/05\/30\/cc8eb8de-4228-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.47a415a8279a\">some with rates at $200 an hour<\/a>, Long Beach seventh-grader Medina \u201cDina\u201d Miranda, tied for 19th place in the 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C. in late May.<\/p>\n<p>As if making it to the national competition wasn\u2019t enough cause for celebration, going all the way to the finals just cemented the feeling of elation for the 13-year-old Stanford Middle School student and her family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just really shocked because I didn\u2019t think I would get in,\u201d Dina said. \u201cI heard my name and was like \u2018What!?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt that point she already won by making it to D.C. so just being on the final stage was a dream come true for her for sure,\u201d said her mother Malu Miranda. \u201cTo this day I\u2019m still speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The celebration wasn\u2019t limited to just Dina\u2019s family who was in the audience during the weeklong event, though. The whole city of Long Beach cheered on from the beginning as she became the first Long Beach Unified School District student to win the countywide Scripps Regional Spelling Bee in March.<\/p>\n<p>She even got a shout-out from the creator of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, of whom she is a big fan.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Let Dina know I believe her, and I&#39;m rooting for her! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F2wC5ERMTR\">https:\/\/t.co\/F2wC5ERMTR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Lin_Manuel\/status\/992097265643737088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 3, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>After spelling correctly words like &#8220;nephelognosy,&#8221; &#8220;polymorphous,&#8221; and &#8220;amphipneustic,&#8221; it was &#8220;orans&#8221;\u2014a noun meaning a figure in an attitude of prayer, usually standing, with the elbows close to the sides of the body and with the hands outstretched sideways, palms up\u2014that she spelled incorrectly by adding a U after the O.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"oUNIC2IwM4\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/long-beach-middle-schooler-eliminated-in-national-spelling-bee-finals\">Long Beach Middle Schooler Eliminated in National Spelling Bee Finals<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Long Beach Middle Schooler Eliminated in National Spelling Bee Finals&#8221; &#8212; Long Beach Post News\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/long-beach-middle-schooler-eliminated-in-national-spelling-bee-finals\/embed\/#?secret=sp7YuehIMF#?secret=oUNIC2IwM4\" data-secret=\"oUNIC2IwM4\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never studied it, [but I\u2019m] not forgetting it after that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>So what helped Dina make it all the way to the seventh round of the competition?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just looked at some really obscure lists and root words and root languages,\u201d Dina said nonchalantly.<\/p>\n<p>Dina\u2019s love for knowing where a word comes from and what it means and breaking down the prefix and suffix also helps in her studying, said Malu who participated in spelling bees in middle school as well.<\/p>\n<p>And it seems to have paid off. Dina has made it to the county spelling bee every year since she was old enough to qualify in third grade. She even placed second as a fifth-grader.<\/p>\n<p>While it was a class spelling bee in second grade that helped Dina realize she enjoyed the competition, Malu said she saw potential in her daughter at a young age.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe started reading fairly early. She would read postcards at age 3 and just enjoy seeing new words,\u201d Malu said. \u201cEvery word was new to her at that age so she was just a curious child. When the school offered spelling bees, we thought this was right up her alley.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dina plans to try once again next year, the last time she\u2019ll be able to compete. The cut-off is 8th grade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe has one more shot, but she\u2019s excited,\u201d said Malu, adding that the activities organizers held for the kids and their family members made the experience even more worthwhile. \u201cJust to cultivate that learning experience, and she made friends from all over the country, some from other parts of the world. It&#8217;s been a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All of Long Beach was cheering on seventh-grader Medina \u201cDina\u201d Miranda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":66192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[369],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-spelling-bee","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}