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Farnsworth middle-schooler lands spot at national spelling bee
Posted on Tue, March 31st, 2009
Written by: Dan Sabbatino,
email: sabbatinod@spotlightnews.com

Farnsworth Middle School student Luxi Peng realized a dream she has had since the fifth grade — making it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Peng, a seventh-grader, took top prize at the Greater Capital Region Spelling Bee held on Monday, March 16, at Proctors. She is the first Guilderland student ever to win that honor.

With her win, she will advance to the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C., held May 25-29.
Deb Escobar, coached the team, and praised Peng’s, and the rest of the team’s, hard work. Farnsworth had two other students in the top 10 — Hannah Liu, Kristen Bourgeois. Zubin Mukerjee also competed in the regional competition.

“I was proud of all four of them. They did an excellent job,” Escobar said.
Luxi beat close to 100 competitors from nine counties for the top spot.
Escobar touted Peng’s dedication and hard work.
“She taught me probably more than I could have taught her,” Escobar said.
Escobar said Peng studied more than 1,500 words, and has been studying entomology and technique since she was in fifth grade.

She said learning tricks, such as where a word originated, can help with words a student might be unfamiliar with. She gave the simple example of the word “school.” The Dutch origins of the word account for the “sc” beginning rather than the phonetic “sk,” and so if a student is provided with the language of origin, they have a better chance at making an educated guess.

Escobar said Peng asked for the entomology of every word, even ones she knew, just to be sure.
The final four students, and then eventually the final two, were engaged in a time-consuming, high-tension, battle, Escobar said.
“The regional organizers said they have never seen the last four finalists go as long as they did,” she said.
The match-up between Peng and Preston Law, who finished second, took more than one hour.

“You wanted both of them to win,” Escobar said of the hard work both competitors put into the spelling bee.
Eventually Law missed one letter, Escobar said, and then Peng had to spell two words correctly to win. The final word was “geogenous.”

Her prized includes a full-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for her and her chaperone, $300 in U.S. Savings Bonds, a new laptop, a four-pack of tickets to Proctors and an online subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica.
“This is really a first for our district. It’s something we’re really proud of,” Escobar said.






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