Spelling bee champ headed to Nebraska
To the Super Bowl victor goes a trip to Disneyland.
To the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner goes a trip to ... Nebraska?
Darn straight. That’s the plan for 13-year-old Evan O’Dorney, your 2007 champion speller of words you never use.
Apparently, he’d just as soon hash out some college-level math problems in Lincoln as spell “serrefine” before an ABC primetime audience.
Moments after winning Thursday’s national spelling bee and the $42,500 prize package that goes with it, O’Dorney was more excited about an upcoming math camp in Lincoln.
“My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” O’Dorney said. “... The spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”
That’s enough to make a math professor smile.
“I saw that quote,” said Steve Dunbar, director of the American Mathematics Competition. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s pretty good.’”
Dunbar, also a University of Nebraska-Lincoln math professor, didn’t watch Thursday’s bee. But when he saw the story about it Friday morning, the name Evan O’Dorney rang familiar.
Is that our Evan O’Dorney?
Yep. The California native is one of 55 young math brains coming to Lincoln from June 10-30.
Every summer since 1996, the best young minds have congregated in Lincoln, home of the Mathematical Association of America.
They come to train and with aspirations of being part of the six-person team selected to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad.
At 13, the home-schooled O’Dorney is one of the youngest kids to ever be invited to Lincoln for the math camp. His high score at the USA Mathematical Olympiad earned the invitation.
Dunbar said it’s not unusual to see a spelling whiz show up at his math camp. A smart kid is a smart kid — be the topic letters or numbers.
It’s also not unusual for such a brainiac to be home-schooled.
“When you think about it, here’s a kid who can spell anything that’s thrown at him, and then he’s performing mathematically at the level of something similar to a college junior, or say a college senior,” Dunbar said.
“To put him in a school environment is probably not going to be productive for anybody.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
To the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner goes a trip to ... Nebraska?
Darn straight. That’s the plan for 13-year-old Evan O’Dorney, your 2007 champion speller of words you never use.
Apparently, he’d just as soon hash out some college-level math problems in Lincoln as spell “serrefine” before an ABC primetime audience.
Moments after winning Thursday’s national spelling bee and the $42,500 prize package that goes with it, O’Dorney was more excited about an upcoming math camp in Lincoln.
“My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” O’Dorney said. “... The spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”
That’s enough to make a math professor smile.
“I saw that quote,” said Steve Dunbar, director of the American Mathematics Competition. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s pretty good.’”
Dunbar, also a University of Nebraska-Lincoln math professor, didn’t watch Thursday’s bee. But when he saw the story about it Friday morning, the name Evan O’Dorney rang familiar.
Is that our Evan O’Dorney?
Yep. The California native is one of 55 young math brains coming to Lincoln from June 10-30.
Every summer since 1996, the best young minds have congregated in Lincoln, home of the Mathematical Association of America.
They come to train and with aspirations of being part of the six-person team selected to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad.
At 13, the home-schooled O’Dorney is one of the youngest kids to ever be invited to Lincoln for the math camp. His high score at the USA Mathematical Olympiad earned the invitation.
Dunbar said it’s not unusual to see a spelling whiz show up at his math camp. A smart kid is a smart kid — be the topic letters or numbers.
It’s also not unusual for such a brainiac to be home-schooled.
“When you think about it, here’s a kid who can spell anything that’s thrown at him, and then he’s performing mathematically at the level of something similar to a college junior, or say a college senior,” Dunbar said.
“To put him in a school environment is probably not going to be productive for anybody.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
Copyright © 2002-2009 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.