Palm Desert girl qualifies for the National Spelling Bee
A Palm Desert eighth-grader with the proficiencyto spell rarely heard words like “mnemonic” and “gnathonic” will representRiverside County at the National Spelling Bee in May.
Katie Peterson of Palm Desert Charter Middle School topped 25competitors to take first place Wednesday afternoon at the 36th annualRiverside County Spelling Bee, held at the Moreno Valley Conference &Recreation Center.
The contest lasted nearly three hours and went into the 22nd roundbefore Katie cinched a win by successfully spelling “tremulous,” which meansto be affected with trembling or tremors.
Other rounds had required contestants to spell words such as “kudzu,””omnivorous,” “gnathonic” and “paradigm,” according to the county Officeof Education.
Katie was representing the Desert Sands Unified School District.
The girl’s mother said she and her daughter came to the United Statesfrom Indonesia 12 years ago speaking no English and learned together bywatching television shows, mostly “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “SesameStreet.”
Katie describes herself as an ardent reader, spending whatever sparetime she can with a book.
She will compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, slated for May 26-30, in National Harbor, Md.
The two first-place elementary school finishers from the county spellingbee — fourth-grader Ryan Bascos from Stokoe Elementary School in Riversideand sixth-grader Shakson Isaac from the San Jacinto Leadership Academy — willrepresent the county at the California Spelling Bee in San Joaquin.
