Photo Courtesy of The Washington Post
Last week, Zaila Avant-Garde became the first Black American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Now her accolades continue to flow in as Louisiana State University has offered her a full scholarship.
On Saturday, LSU President William F. Tate IV tweeted, “Zaila Avant-garde @basketballasart performed at the highest level in the National Spelling Bee. Your academic performance reflected scholarship first! You modeled intellectual excellence. @LSU_Honors awaits. I write to offer you a full scholarship to attend LSU. Here for you!”
While making an appearance at New York City’s ESPY awards on Saturday, the young prodigy told reporters that she’s feeling in awe of her ability and performance at the spelling bee.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I still can’t quite believe that I won Scripps National Spelling Bee, so I’m still waiting for that to settle in,” she said.
“So I guess my weekend is gonna get even more exciting when I realize,” she added.
“I’m hoping that within the next few years, I can see a little bit of an influx of African Americans, and [there are] not many Hispanic people, either, so I’m hoping to see them there, too,” Avant-garde said.
She could hardly contain her excitement when winning the championship after spelling the final word “murraya” and having competed against 208 other contestants from five countries.
Former President Barack Obama congratulated the teen with a thoughtful tweet on Friday.
“Three Guinness World Records and now the national spelling bee champ! Congrats, Zaila—your hard work is paying off. We’re all proud of you,” he wrote.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama posted Avant-garde’s video on Twitter and said, “Yes, Zaila! We are so, so proud of you!”
The legendary young girl has made several nation appearances after her incredible win.
“It felt like really good. It’s like a kind of like a dream come true because I’ve been working toward that goal for like two years. And so to finally have it, it’s like the best possible outcome because it couldn’t have gone any better,” Avant-garde
told CBS.Related Story: Missouri Teachers Got Together To Wear Letters Spelling Out ‘Coons’
According to the outlet, she’s talked about her future possibilities and is considering going to Harvard, working for NASA, playing in the WNBA, and even coaching in the NBA.