He comes from a family of good spellers and they all have big goals.
Next month, 13-year-old Nathan Settevendemie will represent Connecticut at the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“That feels awesome,” the eighth grader said. “I’ve been working towards it.”
Settevendemie lives in Somers with his mom, dad and five other siblings: Caroline, Andrew, Lucas, Julia and Liza. They all spell, but some like it more than others.
His older sister Julia is also a state spelling bee winner and has competed in the national spelling bee.
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“They saw what I did and how I studied and stuff,” the 16-year-old said. “Then they decided that they wanted to do it. Which is cool and it’s cool that we get to keep going and winning.”
Settevendemie said he’s been studying definition, which is what got him out last time he made the national spelling bee in 2023.
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He also said he wants to make the finals and hopefully win it all.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s a challenge like mentally and also like I really enjoy piecing the words together. It’s like a puzzle every time and I really enjoy that.”
Parents Stephanie and Peter said he’s extremely dedicated. On weekdays, he gets up at 4:30 a.m. to study before school and on the weekend, he said he studies up to nine hours a day.
“We have to make Nathan take breaks and regularly, or he wouldn’t,” his mom said. “He’s very, very self-motivated.”
While he does love spelling, it’s his last year. He said he has goals to make the 2032 Olympics in the 5K.
He also wants to be a sports medicine physician and work with Paralympians.
“The spelling bee ends this year for him,” his dad Peter said. “But everything he’s done and learned, his work ethic, is going to take him very far in his life.”
