Stanford Middle School seventh grader Dina Miranda has made it to the National Spelling Bee finals, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) announced today.
Miranda made school history when she became the first LBUSD student to win the countywide Scripps Regional Spelling Bee in March.
She is one of 41 finalists and is one of eight students from California participating.
Fans can watch the competition Thursday, May 31 at espn.com/watch where it will be live streamed starting at 7:00AM.
For more information on the National Spelling Bee click here.
Stanford 7th Grader Dina Miranda https://t.co/JVbFVZ3E4o has made the finals of the National Spelling Bee. Live stream available 7 a.m. tomorrow at https://t.co/tsMIAltX64 .
— Long Beach Unified School District (@LongbeachUSD) May 30, 2018
PREVIOUSLY: First LBUSD Student Wins Countywide Scripps Regional Spelling Bee
The Los Angeles County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee took place March 4 in North Hollywood. Photos courtesy of Friends of Reed Middle School.
3/30/18 at 4:43PM | For the first time ever, a Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) student has won the Los Angeles County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee.
During the countywide competition held at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood March 4, Stanford Middle School seventh grader Dina Miranda bested 150 spellers with the championship word grivoiserie—a noun with French roots that means an act of impropriety.
Congratulations to Dina Miranda for winning the Los Angeles County #spellingbee! Could you have spelled her winning word? https://t.co/6lwagRg2J1 pic.twitter.com/TjkWnPigB2
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) March 29, 2018
The event started out with 34,109 students from over 300 public, private, magnet and religious schools in the county, which dropped down to 150 contestants after registration and a vocabulary test. The contest lasted 10 hours, with 26 rounds and 507 words, according to Friends of Reed and PTSA, which hosted the event.
The second place winner was Mihika Chechi, a seventh grader from John Muir Middle School, and the third place winner was Jackson Lund, a sixth grader from Calle Mayor Middle School.
This isn’t Miranda’s first try at the Spelling Bee. In 2016, as a fifth grader at Gant Elementary School, she won second place in the county competition.
Other notable finalist and elimination words this year included chiaroscuro, apishamore, yttrium, Gibraltarians, pfeffernuss, mynheer, zeitgeber and philhellenism.
Miranda will go on to represent LBUSD at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in late May.
For more information on the Spelling Bee click here.