Not to brag, but I once won my fifth grade classroom spelling bee by spelling the word temperature. My mom still talks about it to this day. Of course, that pales in comparison to National Spelling Bee champ, Zaila Avant-garde, who's accomplishments seem to be just getting started.
As many of you know, SchoolInfo is a worldwide company, but our heart and soul resides in Louisiana. So, you can imagine how excited we were when we learned that, number one, Zaila is the first Afircan-American contestant to win the National Spelling Bee. Number two, she is from our home state! The 14-year-old Harvey, Louisiana native said she has been working towards this goal for 2 years, but she has no intentions of stepping out of the spotlight anytime soon.
Her win on America's biggest spelling stage was only the most recent stop on her path of achievements. Previously, she was the Guinness World Records title holder for most bounce juggles in one minute. As for the future, Zaila says she hopes to one day play basketball at Harvard before a career at NASA or as a coach in the NBA. Not to be taken lightly, she's also considering a career in neuroscience or gene editing! Yet here I am bragging about spelling the word temperature.
The winning word, you ask? Murraya, a type of tree. A word that Zaila associates with everyone's favorite comedian, Bill Murray. As a huge Murray fan myself, I can't think of a better way to memorize it. Surely anything is better than trying to remember different types of trees.
On behalf of SchoolInfo, I'd like to extend a huge congratulations to Zaila. It's a huge win for her and a great way to represent the state of Louisiana. Student success is a large part of our mission here at SchoolInfo. Seeing them succeed like this reassures us that what we are doing is important. Communication and engagement is a key to student success, and something that we believe our products can help your school with.
Interested in learning more about increasing student/family engagement with a top-notch digital communication strategy? Download our ebook today!