INDIANAPOLIS — It’s officially bee week!
Which means students from across the country are in Washington, D.C. for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The Indianapolis Public School district has two students who made it to the nationals: Owen Norwalk and Aryan Sant.
Owen is a seventh grade student at Center for Inquiry School 84 and can spell words as hard as “Australopithecus” at the snap of a finger.
"The apes that humans descended from,” said Owen, when asked what Australopithecus meant.
But, it's not the ability to spell words like these that has set the 13-year old Owen apart from the rest, it's his work ethic.
"I don't go to recess and I study on my iPad," Owen explained. “I don’t feel like I’m missing out much.”
Owen told RTV6 one of the keys to his success is in studying what he calls the "make-up" of words.
"Every day I study root words and I memorize language rules. And I apply them to words that I don't know how to spell,” Owen said.
His mother, Amy, said she actually has to encourage Owen to relax.
"There is so much self-discipline in that child that we don't have to push him at all, in fact we push him to go see a movie, take a study break , because he's just so self-directed," said Amy.
And that type of work ethic makes this triumph all the more sweeter.
“We’re just so proud that at 13, he understands that hard work can get you really what you want in life,” said Amy.
Owen's social studies teacher, Staci Fahlsing, said that his all-around excellence in learning has helped Owen in spelling words, such as Australopithecus.
"Since he's such a good student in other classes, it's nice that he's able to take those subject specific words and really run with them,” said Fahlsing.
Aside from the never-ending amounts of studying, when it comes to the actual event, Owen said, he's not going to be too hard on himself.
"I'm just going to have fun because that's also part of the experience," he said.
Owen also said that he plans to see the White House while in Washington, D.C.
Amy said when Owen isn’t in spelling bee mode, he plays recreational soccer on a team with some of his friends from school, plays the cello, and loves video games.
