Pacelli student spells way to regional finals

Published 7:57 am Friday, February 18, 2011

Shane DeSilva, a Pacelli fifth-grader has made the Southern Minnesota Regional Spelling Bee finals. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Shane DeSilva is an academic rock star.

He won Pacelli Catholic School’s Geography Bee last November. He swept past the competition at Pacelli’s Spelling Bee in January. On Tuesday, the fifth grader earned the right to compete at the Southeast Minnesota Spelling Bee Finals.

DeSilva is one of twelve competitors to compete at the regional finals in March. If he wins, he would go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in June.

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“I feel pretty good,” DeSilva said.

Until then, DeSilva is preparing for the finals the same way he prepared for the previous bees: by reading and practicing words he knows could appear at the competition. He’ll have to work on pronounciation, however: he placed third during regionals after misspelling the word erudite, which he thought was pronounced differently when he checked it on Webster’s Dictionary online.

“I didn’t think I had heard the word before, but when the judges started spelling it I got mad,” DeSilva said.

Aside from his love of words, DeSilva is a very busy fifth-grader. He’s practiced piano for the past seven years and is an avid basketball player. His favorite books are Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Blue Balliett’s books. He is the first Pacelli student to make the regional finals thus far.

“All of our kids have gifts and talents,” said Pacelli Principal Mary Holtorf. “It’s so much fun to see each kid take those gifts and soar with them.”

DeSilva is looking forward to the regional finals, which are on March 1. He’s ready to compete and to go through more spelling bees next year. For now, he’s content enjoying his classmates’ attention.

“They were really impressed,” DeSilva said. “When I told them if I win the next one I’ll go to nationals, their mouths dropped.”