Kilmer Middle School Student Organizes First Ever Nationwide Spelling Bee for Mongolian Immigrants
For the past 18 months, a Kilmer Middle School eighth-grader has been giving up his Friday evenings to offer free spelling tutoring to dozens of Mongolian immigrant children across the US.
Mongolian by descent and a Spelling Bee ace, Erdem Dulguun has the skills and desire to offer academic coaching to an underserved community in need of support. As if that wasn’t enough, he went a step further.
Now, on Saturday, Oct. 22, the 13-year-old will be welcoming many of these children as they arrive at The World Bank in Washington, D.C. to take part in his latest venture; a first-ever community spelling bee for American Mongolian students that has Scripps' support.
Special guest at the event is none other than Batbayar Ulziidelger, the Mongolian Ambassador to the U.S. The Mongolian Embassy will host the participating students and their families on Friday for a meet and greet.
“I wanted to help the Mongolian community because I love keeping my ties with this country, it’s very important to me. 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. Yes, I am helping these kids learn but sometimes they are even helping me learn which is the best part of this.”
Speaking of Saturday, he said he was both “nervous” and “excited” about the event that he organized with the help of mom, Bolormaa Jamiyansuren, and Eliza Morss, the spelling bee coordinator for the Fairfax County Council PTA (FCCPTA) which is the Regional Partner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Program in Fairfax County and Alexandria City.
Erdem was born in the U.S. but returned to live with his grandparents in Mongolia as a toddler while his mother finished grad school here. When he returned to America as a kindergartener, he had to relearn English.
His own spelling skills were honed at Westbriar Elementary School in Vienna when as a sixth grader he finished as the 1st Runner-Up in the Fairfax County Spelling Bee 2021 and was our region's alternate to go to the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Jamiyansuren proudly posted about Erdem's Spelling Bee success on Facebook to the U.S. Mongolian community. Many were amazed that participating in an English-language spelling bee was a possibility - or even permitted - for non-native English speakers.
So Erdem took what he heard from these Mongolian students across the U.S. and now most Friday evenings he holds Zoom classes for dozens of youngsters. The help he gives is invaluable to this community that often struggles because of the difficulties of learning a vastly different language to their native Mongolian.
As these students' skills improved, they told him that they wanted to be able to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee just as he had. However, many of these students live in low-income communities, and their schools cannot afford to enroll in the Scripps' program.
Erdem and his mother came up with the idea of holding their own spelling bee just for the Mongolian community. They enlisted the help of Morss and, working together, they were able to successfully seek approval and support from Scripps.
Morss said, “I loved the idea, and I contacted Scripps, told them the story, and immediately received Scripps' approval both to participate in the event as well as to use - for free! - Scripps' copyrighted Bee materials from a past year for this "community spelling bee".
The Spelling Bee will be held on Saturday, October 22, 10 AM - 1 PM in an auditorium at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Thirty-four contestants are coming from eight different states, including California, Washington, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Florida.
