The pleasure of winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee continues for 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde, who, following her historic win, has since been offered several scholarships to colleges and universities once she graduates high school.
Schools offering the young spelling savant full rides include Louisiana State University, Southern University and A & M College and Louisiana Community & Technical College System. LSU president Dr. William F. Tate IV took to his Twitter account on Saturday, July 10, where he announced the fantastic news.
“Zaila Avant-garde @basketballasart performed at the highest level in the National Spelling Bee,” he wrote. “You academic performance reflected scholarship first! You modeled intellectual excellence. @LSU_Honors awaits. I write to offer you a full scholarship to attend LSU. Here for you!”
President of Southern University Ray Belton wrote in a post that he was “pleased to announce that @Southernu_BR is offering #ZailaAvantgarde a full scholarship” and also announced that “Zaila Day” would be created at the campus in her honor. He added, “Our student leaders, faculty, and alumni look forward meeting with you. We welcome you to the #JaguarNation! #WeAreSouthern.”
Avant-garde, a Louisiana native, made history after winning the highly competitive spelling bee competition on Thursday, July 8, after correctly spelling the word “murraya,” which is a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees. It also marked the second time in the competition’s 96-year history that a Black contestant won, the first for an African-American, winner and the first from her state. Her victory also marks the first for a homeschooled student since 2000 and the 52nd win for a female competitor. In 1998 Jamaican Jody-Anne Maxwell also won the Scripps Bee, making her the first non-American winner and first Black winner.
While discussing the viral and historic moment with “The Black News Channel,” the eighth grader revealed that she had “been training for two years.” Those training sessions included “doing 13,000 words for seven hours, so I kind of more expected it,” she explained. She later added, “I was really happy when I got the trophy.”
During a recent interview with CNN, Avant-garde expressed interest in neuroscience, gene editing and even an interest in working for NASA some day; in a recent Twitter post, the organization also expressed its desire to have her work for NASA. “The word is ‘star.’ Definition: Zaila Avant-garde. Congratulations on your amazing #SpellingBee win, @BasketballAsArt. We hope you’ll join the NASA family one day!”
