How do you spell champion? Kavya Shivashankar. On May 28, the 13-year-old girl from Kansas took home the golden trophy in the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Calm, cool, and collected, this queen bee out-spelled 11 finalists, conquering the word Laodicean with a smile. What does the winning word mean? It means "lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics." Kavya used her finger to spell out each word on her hand before reciting the letters. She is anything but indifferent, or uncaring, about spelling. A four-time bee participant, Kavya finished in fourth place last year, eighth the year before, and 10th in 2006. This year, she spelled her way up to more than $40,000 in cash and prizes. Her dad, mom, and little sister rushed onto the stage to give her big hugs after her win.

Kavya studies language roots in preparation for the spelling bee.

"This is the moment we've been waiting for; it's a dream come true," her father, Mirle Shivashankar, told reporters. "We haven't skipped meals, we haven't lost sleep, but we've skipped a lot of social time." Kavya turned 13 just a week before the bee, but she was too busy studying to celebrate, so her family plans to throw her a belated birthday party. In addition to learning bee-witching words, Kavya also plays violin, rides her bike, swims, and learns Indian classical dance. "But I don’t think anything can replace spelling," Kavya said. "Spelling has been such a big part of my life." Kavya wants to become a neurosurgeon, or brain doctor, when she grows up. Her role model is Nupur Lala, the 1999 bee champion featured in the documentary Spellbound, who now works in the brain and cognitive sciences lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kavya will probably keep exercising her brain by entering the International Brain Bee, a high school neuroscience competition.

Laura Newcombe, of Canada, hi-fives her fellow contestants in the spelling bee.

The competition was indeed spellbinding. Even in these high-tech spell-checking days, the National Spelling Bee had 293 contestants—the largest number yet. In the first round, held on May 26, spellers spelled 50 words on a computer (only 25 of the 50 spellings counted toward each speller's test score). The next day, all spellers participated in rounds two and three onstage. For each correct spelling given in those rounds, the speller earned three points. The results of those rounds were combined with the test scores in the first round to determine who advanced to the next round. The semifinalists competed onstage the next day. When a participant misspelled a word, a bell sounded a dreaded ding and he or she had to leave center stage and join his or her proud parents in the audience. But none of the contestants walked away empty-handed—all spellers won cash prizes and commemorative watches.

Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, kicked off the televised final rounds. She told the audience that she dropped out of her sixth-grade spelling contest because she was too nervous.

"I know that confidence is the most important thing you can give a child," she said. Kavya's parents seem to have done a good job of doing that.