The winner of this year’s Scripps National spelling bee competition has its first African American winner in its 93 year history after spelling the word murraya”, a type of tropical tree. The win comes with a trophy and over $50,000 in cash and prizes.
Zaila a 14-year-old from Louisiana who began spelling competitively only two years ago after she was encouraged by her father unlike most top Scripps spellers who begin training and competing at the age of five.
Zaila Competed again 209 spellers from 15 different countries ranging from ages 9 -15 before becoming the first black American since the competition began in 1925 . She is the second black girl to win the tournament – Jody-Anne Maxwell, of Jamaica, was crowned champion in 1998 at the age of 12.
Zaila is also one of the best eighth grade girls basketball Players in the United States of America and holds three Guinness world records for her ability to dribble multiple basketballs at a time .
At the moment, Zaila hasn’t made up her mind yet on what career path she would like to thread either as an NBA coach , a neuroscientist or exploring the fields of Gene editing.
Zaila is an Inspiration!
