Philly Preteen Totally Awesome; N.J. Teen Slightly Less So

Last night, a girl from New Jersey became the first female since 1999 to win the National Spelling Bee. Pretty cool. The 13-year-old is from North Jersey, but that hasn’t stopped the local news from jumping on it. She won on the word ursprache, which means a parent language.

Fair enough. But, uh, she won a spelling bee. Which is fine, but not nearly as cool as a Philadelphia 10-year-old, who dove in front of the EL to save her brother.

KYW 1060 tells the story like so:

Last February 17th, Darien’s mom lost control of the baby’s stroller at an elevated train platform, and Alexandra jumped onto the tracks with a train heading toward them:

“My nephew got caught on a wind gust and his stroller got pushed onto the El tracks. And I had to jump down there because nobody else would. Then I put him up, and I got the stroller, but luckily nothing fell out but a binky.”

First off: Wind gusts can push strollers onto train tracks? Yikes. Second off: That’s amazing. Way cooler than winning a spelling bee. Can’t somebody give this girl a college scholarship?

Local 10 Year Old Girl Honored As Hero [KYW 1060]
Schoolgirl is first ever from N.J. to win national bee [AP/Inquirer]