Fourth grader Snigdha Pati won the Alabama Spelling Bee on Saturday with the word jurisprudence.

Pati, who attends Deer Valley Elementary School in Jefferson County, defeated students from 49 other counties in the state.

Students from fourth through eighth grades, including last year’s winner Ayden Nguyen, competed for five rounds at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“It’s a good day that’s important for the kids,” said Susan McDougal, Executive Director of Alabama Spelling Bee.

“When they come to register in the morning, they’re so nervous but I tell them we’re in it together – we’re not competing against each other, we’re competing against the dictionary.”

Pati will travel, expenses paid, to Washington, D.C. for the 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 27.

The Alabama State Spelling Bee is sponsored by the Alabama Kiwanis Foundation. The bee is also supported by Scripps, as well as hundreds of schools across the state.

This year about 775 schools participated, McDougal told AL.com. Before COVID, that number was closer to 900.

McDougal would like to see more schools sign up in the future, saying students learn a lot from spelling bees.

“The kids that tend to excel in spelling bees, really excel in life,” McDougal said. “They study hard, they learn about different languages, about public speaking and how to conduct yourself. It’s more than just the spelling.”