A valley middle schooler is spelling her way across the country.
Her 7th grade classmates held a viewing party Wednesday, as they watched Alyssa Miango competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Miango moved on after the word "inauguration."
"You won't find those words in your average 7th grade class, it's not going to happen," says St. Anne's Catholic School principal, Nadine Villareal.
Miango studied 2 to 5 hours a day in order to learn how to spell words like "parmesan" and "ambivalent," both words she spelled on her road to D.C.
"She isn't boastful, but we are, so when we have a student as gifted as she is, we like to celebrate," says Monsignor Gregory Gordon, the pastor at St. Anne's Catholic Church.
Catholic schools have only been allowed to compete at the state level in Nevada for the past couple years, so educators say Miango's success means a certain level of respect for Catholic schools across the state.
"She's been such a wonderful ambassador for education, and for Catholic education," says Gordon.
