Spelling Bee For Mongolian Community Organized By Vienna Student

VIENNA, VA — Kilmer Middle School eighth grader Erdem Dulguun understands the challenge of learning English as a Mongolian American whose language is very different. Born in the U.S. Dulguun went to live in Mongolia as a young child and had to relearn English when returning to the U.S. for kindergarten.

That's why Dulguun, 13, has been providing free spelling tutoring to Mongolian immigrant children around the U.S. Now he's organized a spelling bee designed for Mongolian American students, according to a Fairfax County Public Schools blog feature.

The community spelling bee organized by Dulguun will be held Saturday at The World Bank in Washington, D.C. The spelling bee will include 34 contestants from eight states, and Mongolian Ambassador to the U.S. Batbayar Ulziidelger will be a special guest. A reception will also be hosted at the Mongolian Embassy.

The spelling bee stems from Dulguun's participation in the 2021 Fairfax County Spelling Bee as a sixth grader at Westbriar Elementary School. He was the region's alternate to go to the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Dulguun has been sharing his knowledge with dozens Mongolian students across the U.S. during Zoom classes most Friday evenings. The eighth grader heard from students they wanted to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program like he had. However, many of their families live in low-income communities and cannot afford the cost of the Scripps program.

Then Dulguun and his mother, Bolormaa Jamiyansuren, came up with the idea of having a spelling bee for the Mongolian community. Working with Eliza Morss, the spelling bee coordinator for the Fairfax County Council PTA, they got approval from Scripps to host the spelling bee. Scripps is allowing use of copyrighted spelling bee materials from a past year for the community event.

"I wanted to help the Mongolian community because I love keeping my ties with this country, it’s very important to me," Dulguun told the FCPS communications team. "I’m not exactly the best teacher, I'm not that much of a public speaker because I get nervous but it is a good feeling to share what I know."