Hinsdale Student Qualified For National Spelling Bee

HINSDALE, IL — Srinidhi Rao, a fifth grader at The Lane School in Hinsdale, was a natural at spelling early on. When she was 2, she walked into her father's doctor's office and spelled a word she saw on the wall "C-a-r-d-i-o-l-o-g-y," according to a news release from the school.

She just qualified to compete in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“I love learning words in new languages and doing stems to understand words better,” Srinidhi said in the news release. “I feel so good when I have spelled a difficult new word correctly by deciphering it from the word roots and language patterns.”

This is the fourth year in a row that a District 181 student has qualified for the national event.

Srinidhi’s mother, Leelaa Rao, said people are amazed with her daughter's talent.

“I am very thankful that one of her teachers took special interest in her in kindergarten,” Leelaa said in the release. “We have nurtured her love for spelling since then while making sure she isn’t just a spelling machine. We want her to understand the definitions as she learns and understands more about how language works.”

Srinidhi plans to follow the footsteps of her father, Dr. Rammohan Rao, into a medical career. She would like to be a pulmonary critical care doctor.

“She originally wanted to be an ophthalmologist, but after seeing her father treat COVID patients this past year, she was inspired, and she changed her mind,” Leelaa said.

Srinidhi won the District 181 Bee earlier this year and qualified for the Scripps Bee by placing first in the At-Large Region One Regional Spelling Bee, when she spelled the word “tomium” correctly, according to the news release.