Kavya Shivashankar wins National Spelling Bee

Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. The 13-year-old Kansas girl saved the biggest smile for last, when she rattled off the letters to "Laodicean" to become the nation's spelling champion.

After six years of inhaling dictionaries word by word, memorizing their meanings, studying their roots and perfecting their pronunciations, she bested 292 competitors and aced 40 words to capture a prize that has eluded her in three previous final appearances.

“It’s been my dream for so long, I just can’t believe it’s actually happened,” Kavya said afterward.

The eighth-grader from California Trail Junior High School maintained a cool confidence throughout all 16 rounds of the competition.

She appeared to know every word as soon as she heard it, asking only a few questions about roots and meanings.

Indeed, only one word back in the fourth round, “ergasia,” stumped her. It means any form of activity, especially mental.

“But I came up with the root and was able to get the word,” she said.

Then came her trademark scribbling of the word with her finger across the palm of her hand to check herself. Then she nailed it.

“She has incredible poise and composure,” said Paul Loeffler, a former competitor who serves as ESPN’s color analyst for its bee coverage. “Rarely do you see her look nervous or panicked. She has a grace about her that I think all the other competitors recognize and look up to.”

Kavya’s triumph before a nationally televised audience on ABC and against some stiff competition came down to “Laodicean,” an indifference to religion or politics.

Kavya paid tribute to her father and coach, Mirle Shivashankar.

“My dad really helped me,” she said. “I couldn’t have done this without him.”

“Wonderful” is how he described his daughter’s achievement. But he had butterflies throughout.

“No matter how many years we come,” he said, “it’s always there.”

Kavya, who hopes to become a neurosurgeon, which elicited a loud applause from the audience during a post-bee interview, will take home $30,000 in cash, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and an Encyclopaedia Britannica reference collection.