Glen Landing Student Ready for Scripps National Spelling Bee

Bolshevik.

That's the word Bisma Nasir spelled correctly to win the 2012 Camden County Spelling Bee.

Winning the county crown earned Nasir a trip to Washington, D.C., for the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Nasir will be the second Glen Landing Middle School student to represent Camden County in the National Spelling Bee in as many years.

The eighth-grade student will head down to Washington, D.C., with her father, Nasir Butt, on May 27. She's looking forward to the trip, and to the May 30-31 competition.

"Since I don't do any sports or anything like that to represent myself some other way, this is a way to show what I can do," she said. "It's a nice way to represent the school."

Nasir finished as runner-up to a fellow Glen Landing student in the 2011 county bee. It was Preet Raval, who, as an eighth-grader, went to the nation's capital as Camden County's representative in last year's National Spelling Bee.

What's especially interesting about Glen Landing representing Camden County back-to-back years in the Scripps bee is the school has only been competing in spelling bees for two years.

Add to that the fact that the top three finishers in this year's county bee are Glen Landing students—Nasir, Nandi Cook-Creek and Patrick O'Brien—and spelling bee coordinator Maura McGarvey has a burgeoning dynasty on her hands. After all, Cook-Creek is only a seventh-grader.

"I was so proud, I was in tears. When she won (the county bee), her mother was in tears and then I was in tears," McGarvey, who is Nasir's language arts teacher, said. "I think she's going to do well. She's more nervous than I think I am for her."

Nasir's strength is being able to use a word's language of origin to spell it, McGarvey said.

Nasir admits she had no idea what or who a Bolshevik was when she was asked to spell it in the county bee's final round. It didn't matter, though. Plenty of school left for her to learn European history. What was important was she knew exactly how to spell it.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee preliminaries will be held on May 30. The semifinals and finals will be held on May 31, with the semifinals to be aired on ESPN2 at 10 a.m. and the finals to be aired on ESPN at 8 p.m.

"When I was little, me and my sisters, we used to watch the spelling bees. We never imagined maybe one of us could be on that stage one day," Nasir said. "So, it's really cool. Everyone is looking forward to it."