Symmes Valley Elementary fifth-grader Felicity Jenkins may not be old enough to be selected for a nominative position, but now she certainly knows how to spell it.

N-O-M-I-N-I-T-V-E, nominative. Mistaking only a single letter, it was the word she misspelled at the Regional Spelling Bee in Columbus on March 7. It is also a word she will never misspell again, she said.

Jenkins and her father had been studying for months, one hour each night. She started with the Merriam-Webster Spell It! booklet the school provided, and once she could accurately spell all its 1,150 words, they moved on to bigger, more challenging ones.

“Like tchotchke,” she said, correctly spelling the word without hesitation. “It’s a Yiddish word for a small trinket.”

And it isn’t a coincidence that she knows the origin. Jenkins and her coach-dad study roots, language-origins, parts of speech and definitions – all in addition to the spelling of each word.

Symmes Valley Elementary Literacy Specialist Janet Hale said students are encouraged to learn word origins and the like in addition to spelling, but it is not advice students typically follow.

“It’s definitely not normal for students to learn this kind of information,” Hale said. “But Felicity has gone above and beyond what she needed to do for the spelling bee.”

But it was essential for Jenkins in her competition. Although she breezed through her school’s spelling bee and aced the Lawrence County Bee in January, the level of competition at the annual regional bee was a higher bar she’d have to hurdle. The fifth grader faced opponents from fourth to eighth grades, with all levels of words a possibility.

At the regional competition, all qualifying students were required to take a written exam to weed out the good from the best. Out of 120 students, only 30 made it to the final stage of the bee – and one of those was Jenkins.

“(The Regional Spelling Bee officials) would not tell me what she scored on the written exam, but they said she was definitely at the top,” Hale said.

While other students mumbled their letters and words on stage to the judges below, Hale said Jenkins manifested confidence. With a nod of her head, the fifth grader would boldly spell the word into the microphone.

But when she was presented with a word she was not familiar with, the audience would know.

“You could see this look on my face if it was a word that wasn’t in the book,” Jenkins said.

After a seven-hour day of spelling-bee fun, the day came to an end when Jenkins stuck an ‘i’ where there should have been an ‘a’ in the word nominative. And although she said she was a little disappointed, making it to fifth place at a regional spelling bee was a huge accomplishment.

It was not the first time Jenkins was a spelling-bee winner, however. In 2008, she won her elementary school’s bee as well as the Lawrence County Bee, but because there were no sponsors for the event, the county did not participate in the regional competition, capping Jenkins’ wins at a local level.

But her accomplishments have not gone without award.

“I have two county trophies,” she said. “They are 39 and 40 inches tall. If they get any bigger (in the coming years), they won’t fit on my dresser.”

And she isn’t letting the lack of trophy space keep her from progressing.

“Let’s make it five!” she said about winning even more spelling bee trophies.

Jenkins’ uncanny ability to spell, define and give history to difficult words is just a smidgen of light on how bright she really is.

As a first grader, she spent a couple hours of her school day learning with third graders because she was intellectually gifted. And for the next two years, she continued to work with the upperclassmen.

“God just gave me a gift when I was little,” Jenkins said. “I was already advanced in reading in kindergarten. But math has been where I’m most advanced.”

Sometimes when her class spends an entire day going over an issue or paper she has already discussed as part of her advanced education, she “about dies,” she said.

Her intelligence is not going to be limited to grade-school spelling bees, though. She said she wants to be a surgeon when she grows up – the medical industry is something in which she has always been interested.

“We here at Symmes Valley are so proud of Felicity,” Hale said. “She has demonstrated so much knowledge and skill, and she represents the county so well.”

But not only is she book-smart talented, Hale said, she demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship during the regional spelling bee, as well.

Next year, a new competitor enters the race against Felicity: her little sister. But she is confident she will overcome the family challenge.

“I can definitely beat her,” she said. “But if she wants to work hard at it like I have, she’ll have to have mom as a coach, because I already have dad.”