Girl, 11, wins regional spelling bee

Nearly every day for the last few months, Sowsan Salaam, 11, worked her way through a spelling guide, writing each word five times before moving on to the next. She and her father pored through books, looking for words apt to confound.

And yesterday morning, before the West Philadelphia sixth grader left for the Philadelphia Tribune/Scripps Howard Regional Spelling Bee in the hope of qualifying for the national bee, her paternal grandmother gave her a pep talk. She ended it with "there's always next year."

"She did not want to hear that," grandmother Barbara Goodman said. "She's a very determined young lady."

The hard work paid off.

Salaam, a student at the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander-University of Pennsylvania Partnership School, spelled ubiquitous to win the right to represent Philadelphia in the National Spelling Bee, which will be held in Washington May 26 to 28. Yesterday at the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, she competed against 29 other fifth through eighth graders from schools around the city.

The first runner-up was Calvin Trinidad, 14, an eighth grader at the Community Academy of Philadelphia charter school. The son of a pastor, Trinidad said he had come to this country from the Philippines when he was 5 and hoped to go into medicine. He was felled by the name of a dessert he said he had never eaten, stollen, a sweet bread.

Second runner-up Shira Smillie, 12, a seventh grader at Houston Elementary School in West Mount Airy, was stopped by chagrin.

"I'm coming back next year," she vowed.

There's a lot to be said for not giving up. Salaam said she was a finalist at last year's regional bee, when she stumbled on belligerent. Last year's winner was Hannah Schill, who was an eighth grader at Salaam's school, according to a contest official.

But all the spellers were winners in their own way, and a lot of hard work went into getting to the bee.

Raymond Xu from Spruance Elementary School in Oxford Circle and Eugene O'Connell of Richmond Elementary School in Port Richmond earned spots in the regional by winning yesterday morning's Fifth-Grade Spelldown.

Xu said he had spent hours preparing on a spelling Web site.

O'Connell, who fractured an ankle a few days before and competed gamely despite his crutches, said that one of his teachers had coached him and that he had always liked spelling. "I read the dictionary," he said.

So does Lauren Edwards, an eighth grader at James Martin Middle School.

"I read the dictionary every day at lunch," said Edwards, who hails from Torresdale.

She competed in last year's bee, too. "I messed up on champagne," she said. "I'll never forget how to spell champagne."

Lots of spellers came with support.

Khalil Watson of Steel Elementary School in Nicetown had a cheering section that included his grandmother, mother, and three younger siblings. The day before was his 12th birthday. But in the moments before the bee, the spellers were on their own.

Scott Salisbury, 13, a seventh grader at Chestnut Hill Academy, was doing a little last-minute prep while waiting to go on stage. He said he was glad it was almost over.

"I'm hoping once it's over, my mom will let me do something other than study," he said.

Salaam, of course, probably has lots of studying ahead to prepare for the national bee. The daughter of a music producer and a nurse, she will also get to play around with the new computer she won and look forward to her all-expense-paid trip to Washington.

"She had the attitude she was going to come here and do it," her mother, Hafeezah, said.

And so she did.