Trinidad Renaissance student’s unbelievable victory

Just a few short weeks of intense preparation after entering a spelling bee competition on a whim resulted in an unbelievable win for ten-year-old Isabel O’Reilly.

Isabel and her father were listening to radio station Lime 101.7 FM in the car one day when she heard about its spelling bee competition and realised she met the qualifications.

After a quick phone call to the station, Isabel was entered, and preparation began but the semi-finals were a few weeks away.

“Every evening my dad printed lists and got books and sat down with me and gave me words to spell before the competition,” she told Newsday Kids.

Isabel practised every day for at least a half an hour. She said there were a few words that proved to be challenging for her to learn and had to practise them several times. A few of those words were connoisseur, chauffeur, and daiquiri.

The standard four student entered the semi-final, held at Passage to Asia’s banquet hall, Chaguanas, on February 13. “In the semi-final I was really nervous because I didn’t know anyone.”

She said she had only entered one other spelling bee before at her school – Trinidad Renaissance in San Fernando – when she was in standard two. She came second to her older brother Jacob.

She said during the competition, she got the word marvellous wrong, spelling the word with one “l”. She said, however, when she got to the finals on February 27, she was not nervous because she was better acquainted with her opponents and knew what she was up against.

After acing words like pandemonium during the finals, Isabel won the competition – and a cash prize – with the word unbelievable.

“I am proud of myself because there were 12-year-olds and I am younger than them,” she said with pride. The competition was open to the age group nine to 12.

Isabel said she is eager to do more competitions and will return to compete against next year’s finalists as champion.

Although she has a way with words, Isabel said she quite enjoys math. “In language, there are a lot more rules than math. The mathematicians’ rules are not as complex as the rules of language arts.”

She said she also enjoys art, which she does in school and on her own time. “With art, you can start with one idea and as you go on, it can easily change. You don’t really have to follow something.

“Most of the time I see a picture and I try to draw it and if I make a mistake, I try to make it a part of the painting.” She said when she is older, she would like to be a photographer because she enjoys taking pictures.

Isabel is also preparing for the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examinations next year. “When my brother first did (the exam) I was nervous. It looked so hard, but now that I am writing it, I don’t feel any pressure, but it might just be because it’s next year,” she joked.

Isabel also enjoys time with her family. Her mother, she said is an accountant, and her father is a caterer. “I like to be in the kitchen, but that can be messy.” She has two brothers – Jacob who is 12 and Jonah who is eight.

She said being in the middle of two boys has its challenges. “Even though I am the only girl, they can be very wild and rough at times, but then there are times when they are soft and caring and gentle.”

She said although her preparations for SEA have taken up most of her time, she has many other interests including dance, gymnastics, art classes, and learning to play the keyboard.