Zaila Avant-gardehas entered the world stage!
On Thursday, the 14-year-old eighth-grader from Harvey, Louisiana, clinched victory at the2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, correctly spelling “Murraya” — a genus of flowering plants — during the live finals atWalt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Zaila became the first Black American student to be crowned the champion in the bee’s nearly century-long history, as well as the first winner from Louisiana. (Her sponsor was theNew Orleans Chapter of the Links.)
The only Black winner before Zaila was Jody-Anne Maxwell, who took home the glory in 1998 and represented Jamaica, according toCNN.
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Alongside her affinity for spelling, the teen is also a basketball prodigy who has impressive basketball-juggling skills.
In avideo posted in Mayfrom IJA Jugglers, Zaila is first seen effortlessly juggling numerous basketballs before she rides a unicycle and continues to juggle in another. In one other scene, she is shown balancing herself on two basketballs as she expertly juggles more before her.
Zaila holds threeGuinness World Recordsfor her ability to dribble multiple basketballs at a time, according toUSA Today.
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PEOPLE chattedwith Zaila after her exciting win, when the teen said she wants to continue on her athletic journey and go to Harvard University “as a basketball player and student,” as she believes it’s “a good way to open doors to maybe being anNBAbasketball coach” one day.
But her passions don’t stop there. “I likeworking with NASAand doing gene editing. I have a lot of different things I’m interested in,” she added.
And looking ahead after her stunning feat, the teen added, “I want to inspire everybody,especially African American girls… I’m hoping that inspires a lot of African girls everywhere to really look into this type of thing.”
source: people.com
