Kavya Shivashankar

Kavya Shivashankar, a 13-year-old girl from Kansas, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee 2009, outspelling 11 other finalists. The word that gave her the win was "Laodicean." Ahem, to be honest with you guys, this is a new word for me, this is the first time for me to meet this word. The meaning of the word is "lukewarm or indifferent, esp. in religion, as were the early Christians of Laodicea."

Kavya, a sweet smiling girl brought home $40,000 and a big trophy. Wow, I have about 10 years in my hand to prepare my little boy for a contest like this :)