Blind Girl, 13, Spells Victory at School Bee

Eighth-grader Tiffany Kim took top prize in Fremont Intermediate School’s annual spelling bee with the word “invisible,” but winning the contest didn’t come easy for her.

“I was never good at spelling, because I’ve used contractions for words when writing in Braille,” said Tiffany, who is blind.

“You never really learn how to spell whole words. Even though I wasn’t a good speller, I decided to compete in spelling bees in the fourth grade and every year since. It was motivating for me. I felt confident with this year’s spelling bee.”

Tiffany, who hopes to end up at the national competition, has been “studying words like ‘autorhinolaryngology,’ which is the study of the ears, nose and throat.”

Long term, the 13-year-old plans to attend college and then teach English to seventh- and eighth-graders.

“I think the biggest misconception people have is that since I’m blind, I can’t do anything on my own or that I’m not mentally capable,” Tiffany said.

Sheryl Gonzalez, learning director at Fremont, said Tiffany has been in the gifted and talented education program since elementary school.

Tiffany attributes her spelling success to a strategy of visualizing each word in the middle of a book and then spelling it slowly to avoid any mistakes.

She said the words in this year’s spelling bee were too easy, but noted that in the sixth- and seventh-grade competition, words like ‘soothsayer’ and ‘juggernaut’ gave her trouble.

In her free time, Tiffany enjoys singing with the chorus and narrating books on tape.

One was “The Haunted Schools,” a book that dealt with colors.

“In the story, there are people who live in a world of gray, black and white,” she said.

“It makes me sad for the kids on the other side. I feel sorry for them looking at the gray, black and white. I feel like that sometimes.”

Tiffany advances to the area spelling bee competition to be held at 1:30 p.m. March 9 at Brekke Elementary School in Oxnard.