The 2005 Jack and Jill National Spelling Bee winner and roving correspondent to the Scripps National Spelling Bee is heading back to Washington D.C. – this time as a contestant in the prestigious Scripps bee!

Top Jack and Jill speller Kavya Shivashankar continued her winning ways this year by spelling illusionist to take the top spot at the Olathe Spelling Bee in Olathe, Kansas, her home.

The win makes the fifth-grader eligible to compete in May in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which attracts top spellers from all over the country. Last year after winning the Jack and Jill event at the Tulip Time Scholarship Games in April, Kavya traveled to Washington to cover the Scripps bee for Jack and Jill.

While there, she interviewed contestants from around the U.S., then filed a report on the event which appeared in the Sept. /Oct. 2005 issue of Jack and Jill. (You can read it here).

This year she could face some of those same kids on the spelling line.

“It’s a great feeling,” Kavya said. “I’m looking forward to competing with them this year.”

Learning all about the words on the list is very helpful, she said. “While reading a word I look for the definition, the origin, and the root of it and the pronunciation.”

This study technique really paid off. “It was a little tough, but I knew all the words that were asked in the regional spelling bee.”