IQRA Student wins

regional spelling bee by

an „angstrom‟
MACHESNEY PARK — Eighth-graders Nabaa Khan and Brett Hill went head to head as the only two spellers on the stage for
several perfect rounds before the word “angstrom” caused trouble.

Brett, last year‟s regional winner and a student at Winnebago Middle School, correctly spelled “metaphor,” “neologism,”
“azure,” “tarragon” and “mariachi” before misspelling “angstrom” — a metric unit of length equal to one 10-billionth of a me-
ter.

The top spellers in fifth through eighth grades easily spelled words like “howitzer,” “machismo,” “streusel,” “libretto,”
“incredulous,” “alliteration” and “ambiguity” at the 27th annual Boone Winnebago Regional Spelling Bee Thursday.

Nabaa, a student at Rockford Iqra School, correctly spelled “flamboyant,” “poinsettia,” “eclectic,” “parapet,” “samovar” and
“bowery” before correctly spelling “angstrom” and “patina” for the win.

She was the best of 34 spellers at Harlem High School, and she‟ll represent the region June 2-4 in the Scripps National Spell-
ing Bee in Washington. St. Bernadette eighth-grader Maureen Grady came in third.

It helps that the 12-year-old competed in last year‟s bee, although she remembers earning a spot somewhere around seventh
place.

Nabaa‟s mom, Juveria Khan, and her little brother, 7-year-old Raiyan, sat in the front row during the bee, anxiously listening
to Nabaa flawlessly spell.

With each word, Nabaa carefully and slowly spelled the words after writing each letter on her hand with her finger.

“I was praying,” said Juveria, who was ecstatic with her daughter‟s win. “We‟re all overwhelmed at this point.”

Nabaa‟s father, Khurran Khan Nawab, is in Dubai on business, and the family is leaving today to visit him and some other
family members.

Nabaa spoke with her dad on the phone just before the bee to tell him she was nervous and had butterflies in her stomach.
She said he told her not to get scared on stage or be nervous — and she followed his advice.

She credited her parents, God, principal and teachers at school for helping her prepare for this year‟s bee.

“I didn‟t want to let them down,” Nabaa said.

It‟s the end of the third quarter at school, so she was busy finishing projects and studying for tests on top of preparing for the
spelling bee, so she didn‟t get to bed until around midnight most days last week, Juveria said.

The hard work paid off, Nabaa said, and she felt “really excited” about the win and making the trip to the national bee.