By Liz McBreen
This is the second time in three years that Goldstein has taken part in the contest, finishing in a tie for seventh place in 2000.
Back in March, she won the Long Island Championship Spelling Bee, which qualified her to go to Washington D.C. on May 29 and 30 for the 75th annual National Bee. The bee, the top nationally recognized contest of spelling ability, was broadcast live on ESPN sports network.
Goldstein sailed through the first eight rounds of the contest, including a 25-word written test, a new addition to the bee, in the second round.
She was finally stumped in the ninth round by "porraceous", spelling it with only one "r". Thirteen-year-old Pratyush Buddiga of Colorado Springs won the bee, correctly spelling "prospicience," which is the act of looking forward.
According to the bee's website, JJ will take home about $2,000 in cash for her great run.
The Spelling Bee is the nation's longest-running educational promotion. It is administered on a non-profit basis out of Cincinnati, Ohio, by the E.W. Scripps Company. Over two hundred sponsors comprised of daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations in the U.S., Europe, Guam, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and American Samoa hold a local spelling bee in their communities.
The 41 students who took part in the Island-wide bee, sponsored by Long Island Jewish World newspaper, were from grades four through eight, and had won their own schools' spelling bees, and then a round of semifinals in February.
The winners of these contests advance to the national finals. The purpose of the contest is "to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage."
Goldstein, currently in the seventh grade, is home schooled through the L.I.G.H.T. program. She is a member of a competitive diving team, and she aspires to become an Olympic athlete. JJ has participated in a university talent search four times, earning recognition for her high SAT score.
Spelling seems to run in the family. Last year, her brother Ari won the Long Island bee and tied for 16th place. In 1998, their sister Amy, now 18, also went to the national bee in Washington and tied for forth place.
JJ Goldstein made her way to round 11 of the 75th annual Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee this year. Here are the words she faced:
1 boson a subatomic particle such as a photon
2 (written round) (advanced to round three)
3 osteophyte a small bony outgrowth
4 collabent collapsed in the middle
5 resile to come back into shape after being stretched
6 chymous having the quality of partially digested food
7 ceraunograph instrument for recording thunder and lightning
8 Areopagus a supreme tribunal in ancient Athens
9 porraceous resembling a leek in color
