WASHINGTON –Isabella Neubauer has managed to spell her way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee three consecutive years, one of only 20 spellers to achieve that many repeats.
“My first time I was really, really scared because I was up against a lot of people, like four years older than me and more,” Neubauer said Wednesday. “I had no idea what I was doing, but then it got easier because I knew that I could actually do it.”
This year the format of the National Spelling Bee changed, adding a bit more stress for Isabella and the other 280 participants. This year a vocabulary and a computer based test were added.
Neubauer, 13, a seventh grader at Lowcountry Preparatory Middle School in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina said she was prepared for the new format and practiced a lot harder.
But despite spelling all her words right Wednesday night, making it to the second round, she did not advance the second day of the competition. Her combined scores from spelling and the new tests did not qualify her to advance.
Although his daughter won’t go on the second day, her father, Scott Neubauer said, “I just noticed from year to year she has gotten more confident and I am sure part of that is from having success and knowing what to expect.”
Her mother said that the experience has given the family an opportunity to be together.
They even developed a custom in having a family meal at their favorite restaurant. Isabella has balanced her dedication to spelling with trips to the beach, swimming and sports.
“You can’t get really like, studying your whole entire life away because then you’re going to get everything like really mixed up,” she said.
Back home not only do Neubauer’s friends think it’s cool that she made it to the nationals but she also helps them with spelling words for their school assignments.
She also notices misspellings by teachers, but tries not to embarrass them by correcting them. Except for her mother, who is also her science teacher.
“It’s a win, win situation for everyone,” her mother, Michelle Neubauer said, because the corrections help make her a better speller.
Michelle Neubauer said that when Isabella first started competing in spelling bees she was young, nervous and unsure of herself. Today, “she’s just really blossomed into this very self-confident, self-aware person.”
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