Seventh grader Nidhi Kulkarni takes top spot at citywide spelling bee

Months of preparation, a little luck and a bit of science knowledge propelled Nidhi Kulkarni to the top spot at the Chicago Public Schools Spelling Bee Championship on Tuesday afternoon.

The seventh grader, who attends Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, won first place at the competition, hosted at Marie Curie High School. She will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.

“I’m stunned,” said Nidhi, 12, as she gripped her golden trophy. “It’s like you prepare, but you don’t know which word you’re going to get onstage. So, it’s really scary.”

Nidhi, a first-time participant, beat 43 other students in first through eighth grades, and took the title after correctly spelling “myocarditis,” defined as inflammation of the heart muscle. She said she became familiar with the word while participating in another competition series: the Science Olympiad, which will have a statewide tournament at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in April.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Though Nidhi was confident about “myocarditis,” she was challenged by the word “froward” in an earlier round but excited the crowd when she got the spelling right.

“You need to know the word, or you just need to guess correctly,” she said. “I think it’s also the luck factor, [but] it’s a lot of preparation.”

Spelling bees are known to have a bit of high-stakes drama at times, and this year’s competition was no different. At one point, there was an intense moment of deliberation among the judges when Nidhi misspelled “presentient.” Her parents filed an appeal claiming the judges pronounced the word in different ways, leading to some confusion.

The judges ultimately accepted the appeal and permitted a re-do of the round.

Nidhi’s mother, Renu Chilajwar, said her daughter spent the last few weeks immersed in preparation at her bedroom table.

“She would stick to that table and sit for like six or seven hours,” Chilajwar said. “She was really stressed. … All credit goes to her.”

Chilajwar also shared that her daughter has always been intrigued by words and language — even making edits to the text on cereal boxes.

“She’s been a reader since she was 5,” Chilajwar said. “I was tired of buying books, and then we got books from the library and from neighbors. We had this big library at home. And she likes to correct me if I say something incorrectly.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Last year’s winner, Steven Jiang, said he can relate to the pressure Nidhi and the other contestants faced.

“It’s a lot of studying,” said Steven, 14, now a freshman at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, who trains other students via his Super Spellers program. “When other people are doing fun things, it’s a lot of sacrifices that you have to make. ... It’s really exciting to come back and watch all these kids going through a similar experience.”

After winning the citywide championship, Steven made it to the quarterfinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.

“We got to meet a lot of ‘spell-ebrities’ like [Scripps National Spelling Bee’ pronouncer Jacques Bailly],” Steven said. “It was a really great experience. And there were also a lot of fun things. We had a dance party at the end.”

To qualify for the citywide spelling bee, students must advance through classroom, school and online competitions. The process is meaningful for participants, regardless of where they place, said Dannette Porter, coordinator of the CPS spelling bee program.

“If you love to read, if you love literacy, if you love words, this is a way you can express it, and you really get something out of it” she said.