Zaila Avant-garde made history this month when she became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee — and she has now been offered a full scholarship to Louisiana State University.
“Your academic performance reflected scholarship first! You modeled intellectual excellence,” LSU President William F. Tate IV tweeted.” @LSU_Honors awaits. I write to offer you a full scholarship to attend LSU. Here for you!” Tate wrote.
LSU is a notable HBCU.
Zaila also received full scholarships to Southern University and A&M College, the historically Black university in Baton Rouge.
Ray Belton, president of Southern University system, said he was “pleased to announce” the university is extending Zaila “a full scholarship” and also plans to make a “Zaila Day” in her honor.
“Our student leaders, faculty, and alumni look forward meeting with you. We welcome you to the Jaguar Nation!” he added.
Zaila blazed through the competition, spelling the words “querimonious,” “solidungulate,” and “Nepeta.”
It was the word “Murraya,” a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees. Murraya is more commonly referred to as “orange jasmine.”
“To finally have it, like the best possible outcome, it was really good,” Zaila told “Good Morning America.”
Zaila also hopes that other young, Black athletes will succeed in the national spelling bee.
“I’m hoping that in a few years,” she said, “I’ll see a whole lot more African American females, and males too, doing well in the Scripps Spelling Bee,” which she called a “gate-opener to being interested in education.”
During an interview in May, she stressed the importance of young stars like her being spotlighted in the media.
“I think the more that the achievements and triumphs of women are promoted and publicized, the more likely it is that other girls all around the world will see that they can do any and everything that they put their minds to,” she said last May.
