Broward teen known for her spelling prowess and bumblebee fashion makes it to Bee finals
When Simone Kaplan got the word careen in Round 3 of the Scripps National Spelling Bee preliminaries, she was relieved.
She had heard the word — which, as a verb, according to Merriam Webster, means to sway from side to side — before.
“Some kids got words I wasn’t familiar with,” she said. “But I still asked questions to make sure it was the word I knew.”
By getting the word right, Simone, known for her fashionable bee attire, knew she had a strong chance of making it to the two final rounds of competition Thursday for the second year in a row.
She was right. On Wednesday, the 13-year-old from St. Bonaventure Catholic School in Davie was named one of 50 finalists out of the 562 hopefuls from the United States and around the world. Only one other Florida competitor, Dhyana Mishra from West Melbourne, will join her.
Four other competitors from South Florida, Rodrigro Medinilla, Kyla Truong, Guy Peretz and Diego Bermudez were eliminated.
The final round will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday. From the 50 finalists, the group will be culled to about 15 for the championship round, which will air on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
Simone earned her way into the national bee, which began Monday and runs through Thursday at The Gaylord in National Harbor, Maryland, by winning the Miami Herald’s regional bee for Broward in March.
After tripping up on the word frittata, an Italian version of an omelet, Simone got a second chance after her competitor misspelled his championship word, cataphract (a form of armored heavy cavalry used in ancient times). She ended up winning with the word naveta, which according to Merriam Webster, means “a megalithic long barrow of the Balearic islands resembling an inverted boat.”
Leading up to her trip — this is the third time Simone has made it to the national spelling bee — she said she studied day and night.
At the Scripps bee, Simone has made a name for herself, not only with her spelling skills, but with her bumblebee-adorned dresses, shoes and other accessories. She even earned herself the hashtag #slayingwhilespelling.
So far, she said she has been having a good time seeing her hard work is paying off. She only missed one question out of 30 in the preliminary test, which includes spelling and vocabulary. Only three of the 50 finalists only missed one. No one got a perfect score.
Simone planned on spending Wednesday night in bee pajamas, eating take-out in her hotel room and going over words she has misspelled in the past and the roots of words.
She’s already prepared to sport more bee-inspired clothing Thursday.
“It’s what I’ve become known for,” she said.
This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 9:56 PM.
