THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2007
NEWS
3A
Anna Faltermieier/KANSAN
Tiffany Springgs, Princeton, W. Va., graduate student, looks down at her candle during the vigil held at the Campanile on Tuesday evening to honor those affected by the Virginia Tech shooting. Springgs, who grew up near Virginia Tech, said her friend's father is a professor at the Tech, but he wasn't on campus the day of the shootings.
VIGIL (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
"If you're supporting Virginia Tech students, you're supporting higher education and everything we stand for," Drake said during his speech.
Danielle Coffyn, Prarie Village junior, said that she and her younger sister came to show their support.
"We've both been watching the news a lot and we're really affected by it," Coffyn said. "Virginia Tech's campus is very similar to KU's and it's in a small town too."
Kendra Price, Jefferson City, Mo., junior, said she too felt she could relate to the students at Virginia
Tech.
"This feels like a way to let out some of my own grief." Price said.
For Tiffany Spriggs, Princecon, W.Va., graduate student, the tragedy hit closer to home. Luckily, none of her loved ones were victims of the shooting.
"My hometown is about 30 minutes from there," Spriggs said. "My friend's dad is a professor there, but he wasn't on campus."
Kansan staff writer Joe Hunt can be contacted at jhun@kansan. com.
Edited by Ryan Schneider
103 competitors. He studied the next year for sometimes as long as an hour each night. Toland said friends and family helped him throughout the process.
PROFILE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
"Anybody I could find to give me words to spell, I would do it," Toland said. "They were pretty helpful with that."
The next year he returned to the state bee and won, earning a spot at the national bee. When his spelling career ended in eighth grade, Scott began coaching his younger brother, Kent, who qualified twice for the national bee. While Scott and his family were in Washington, D.C., for the bee last year, his mother Karen was forced to fly home to Iola to care for Scott's father John, who had cancer. Scott stayed alone with his younger brother to coach him
in the nationally televised bee. After Kent was eliminated in the final rounds of the bee, the brothers flew back from Washington. On May 2, just hours after they arrived, their father passed away.
Karen Toland said she was thrilled when she found out Scott had been chosen to work on this year's staff, because it was a full circle for the family.
"Their father loved the kids' spelling ability," Karen Toland said. "We've been so blessed, and spelling has been a great relief for us."
"I knew he was the person for the job," she said. "I was so happy for him. All his work really did pay off."
Today, spelling is taken as seriously by parents as any other sport or activity. The Scripps National
Spelling Bee is one of ESPN's most popular events and is broadcast annually. Toland said some kids were forced to go to spelling camps. He said knowing that angle of spelling made him appreciate the support he had received from his parents to do whatever made him happy.
"They never pressured us to study, and they never made us do it." Toland said.
At the beginning of his first year in college, some of the Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall residents searched Google for one another's names. When they discovered Toland's spelling prowess, they were surprised.
"I don't just go around telling people, you know," Toland said. "They sent out an e-mail letting
everyone know, though."
He said his friends occasionally found words and tried to trip him up, but they were usually not successful.
He said his understanding of spelling didn't affect his everyday life.
"When a teacher spells a word wrong or something on the overhead, it stands out," Toland said. "Normally though, I don't think about it much."
Kansan staff writer Erick R. Schmidt can be contacted at eschmidge@kansan.com.
Edited by James Pinick
SPELLING (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
"Actually it was 'daguerreotype,' she said, offering to spell it out. A daguerreotype is an early photograph printed on a copper plate, and Harrigan said she had been exposed to the word as an art major.
"I'll probably see it for the rest of my life and it will drive me crazy," she said.
Hartigan said she won spelling bees in both elementary and middle schools, but the furthest she ever advanced in those competitions was the county level.
Annie Harrigan, Prairie Village junior, confidently spells the spelling of a word during Tuesday night's spelling bee hosted by Spellington Bee. Harrigan won the competition and Grisswin Worsley, Forsyth III., sophomore, placed second.
She said she had a photographic memory and could remember how to spell a word after seeing it only once.
"I like testing my own intelligence against people who are having as much fun as I am," she said.
Sarah Leonard/KANSAN
Harrigan's victory won her a $50 gift certificate for downtown businesses, while Griswold's second-place finish was worth a $25 downtown gift certificate.
Third-place winner Margaret Tran, Derby freshman, spelled "aberration" followed by "facsimile," and took home a spelling-oriented board game called "Upwards" and a box of Honeycomb breakfast cereal.
Amanda Hallier, Overland Park
junior and SUA films coordinator, said she and Bowers started planning the spelling bee late last semester. She said they wanted to screen a documentary film and pair it with a fun event.
"Everyone loves spelling bees," she said. "We all did them as kids."
The movie "Spellbound," a documentary film about schoolchildren competing in a spelling bee, was shown after the event.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@ kansan.com.
Edited by James Pinick