Spell determination: J-u-l-i-a M-i-g-l-e-t-s

By Harold Gwin

Springfield pupil back for third try

YOUNGSTOWN — Julia Miglets is no stranger to the annual Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee.

She’s crossed the stage at Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center twice before and will be back for this year’s 76th annual event next Saturday.

She’s done well in both of her previous appearances, lasting until the sixth round as just a 10-year-old fifth-grader in 2007 representing Byzantine Catholic Central School and finishing third in the 2008 contest while representing Springfield Intermediate School as an 11-year-old sixth-grader. She is 12 and in the seventh grade now, and is Springfield Intermediate’s champion again this year.

Julia, daughter of Laura and David Miglets of Poland, has always been a good speller, her mother said. Julia started reading when she was just 4 and got the spelling bee bug while at Byzantine Catholic.

That fact that Lauren Johnson, winner of the 2006 Vindicator Bee, was her baby-sitter around that time didn’t hurt.

“I knew she was in the Bee, and she told me what to study and what it was like, what to expect,” Julia recalled, adding that the advice gave her an advantage.

“I’m pretty confident,” she said. She’s not predicting a win but said she expects to finish near the top.

She said she’s learned that you have to keep studying and not be discouraged by previous results.

“I’m not very nervous,” she said, adding that all nerves disappear once the Bee actually begins.

“She’s been studying,” her mother said, and Julia said her mother is a big part of that process.

They use a bee study guide and spend between 30 and 45 minutes two or three times each day reviewing the words in the guide. Her mother also gives her study cards, and Julia said she spends extra time on words that she misspells.

The winner of the Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee gets an expense-paid trip to the “big show” of spelling bees, the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.

It’s a prize Julia said she would like to win.

“I really look forward to that. I think that would be a great experience,” she said.

Julia likes social studies and the language arts in school, and she is a cross country runner.

She’s involved in 4-H, working on a fitness project this year, and is part of her school’s Academic Challenge team. She is also looking forward to her first participation in the annual YSU English Festival this year.

Julia will have one more year of Bee eligibility as an eighth-grader next year.

gwin@vindy.com