After battling round after round for nearly six hours at the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, Hannah Chavez, a 7th grader from Elias Herrera Middle School, won it all by correctly spelling “liverwurst.”

 

She’s on her way to compete on the national stage in Washington, D.C., at the end of May.

 

“I was very nervous,” Hannah said. “I hadn’t expected to get this far. I had been joking around with my sisters and saying, ‘Imagine if I go to Washington.’ And now I am going. I didn’t expect it.”

 

During the regional competition in late March, she relied on God to help her through, she said.

 

“I was also just praying a lot. I am a Christian, and I really relied on God during the spelling bee. Each time before I got on the stage, I stopped for a second and just prayed and remembered what I learned,” she said.

 

Hannah, who wants to be a teacher one day, is not new to spelling bees.

 

As a student at Santa Maria Elementary, she studied with her teacher, Ms. Benavides, who noticed she was quite good at spelling.

 

“I started in elementary school because of my teacher, Ms. Benavides, who really pushed me to do it and she would always study with me after school at Santa Maria, and she would always be there with me. She honestly helped me a lot and through that I found out I really liked spelling,” Hannah said.

 

While a fifth grader at Santa Maria, she made it to regionals but lost with the word “nomophobia,” which means fear of being without your phone.

 

As a sixth grader, she decided to give spelling bees a break but rediscovered the love of the competition in 7th grade. She placed second at the school spelling bee in December, not expecting to go on to compete from there. But the first-place winner had to drop out for the district competition and her sponsor, Elias Herrera Middle Librarian Amy Gomez, called her a week before so she could go in his place.

 

Hannah says that competition leads to “a really accomplished feeling.”

 

 “Even though you have to study a lot, it’s worth it in the end because you get to learn a lot more about words, like the etymology, and meet more people,” she added.

 

Gomez said that Hannah made history by being the first student from Elias Herrera, which has been open six years, to advance to nationals.

 

“I am so excited for her,” Gomez said. “From all my spelling bee participants in the past, I think I have seen her be the most motivated and determined to win it. The day of, we were amazed by the words. I was Googling the words. I was there to cheer her on, and I am so excited that she is going to represent Elias Herrera Middle School. She knew what to ask, asking for pronunciation and origin, and she wanted it. I could see it.”

 

Hannah’s sister, Natalie Chavez, a coach at Elias Herrera, and her parents, Jorge and Odette Chavez, have been big supporters as well. Aside from spelling, Hannah enjoys drawing, video games, and writing poetry and stories.

 

Her goal for the national competition is to advance as far as she can and make new friends along the way.

 

And since she can compete again next year as an eighth grader, she hopes she gets another chance at the national stage.

 

“I spend one to two hours a day practicing. It helps with other classes, especially in reading … and it helps me understand what I am reading more,” Hannah said. “My vocabulary has expanded a lot. Even if I don’t know what the word means, if it has Latin roots or Greek, which are the most common, I can break down the words even if they are really big, especially in reading class, without needing to use a dictionary.”

 

Hannah will also be recognized by the Laredo City Council on April 20 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall at 1110 Houston Street.

Hannah Chavez, Elias Herrera Middle School 7th grader, is with her sponsor, Elias Herrera Middle School librarian Amy Gomez. Hannah heads to Washington, D.C., in late May to compete on the national stage.