Catholic student spells way to national 2nd place

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - For Willie Johnson, an eighth-grader at St. James School in Falls Church, the word "interstitial" meant the difference between first and second place in the Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge.

Willie has competed in the Word Power Challenge since fifth grade and made it to the state level the past three years. This year, he won the state competition and represented Virginia in the national competition held last month in Orlando, Fla. Willie was excited when he first made it to the top 10 in the national competition, then into the top five. The word that finally stumped him was "interstitial," an adjective referring to the space between things. That word was the space between the $25,000 first prize and Willie's $15,000 second prize. The competition tests vocabulary as the students pick from four multiple-choice answers. Besides knowing the definitions, they must understand synonyms and antonyms and other concepts. After each question is asked, the student has 15 seconds to respond. "It's a test of who knows the most," Willie told the Arlington Catholic Herald, the official publication of the Diocese of Arlington. Joe Shepherd, a home-schooled student from Waynesboro, Ga., took first place. Christopher Molini, an eighth-grader at St. Pius X/St. Leo School in Omaha, Neb., won third place and $10,000. Al Roker, weatherman for NBC's "Today" show, served as quizmaster for the Orlando competition. Willie said he was nervous during the competition, but he tried not to think about it. He kept telling himself that it didn't matter since he had already received a free trip to Florida. After earning second place, he still didn't think about it, but kept concentrating on not "doing something stupid on camera," he said. The prize money is a scholarship for college, but if Willie could have his way, he would use it to buy a car. Willie attributes his success to his love of reading. His mother, Katie Johnson, taught him to read when he was 5. His mother said he quickly made the jump from" Little Bear" and other children's books to young adult books such as the Hardy Boys series and "Treasure Island." "I taught by example," said Katie Johnson. "We all read a lot." The Johnson family moved to Virginia four years ago from Tallahassee, Fla. Before they moved, one of the local libraries underwent a major reconstruction and ended up throwing out hundreds of books, said Bill Johnson, Willie's father. The family took home more than 50 boxes of books. They gave some to home-schooling groups and homeless shelters but still have quite a collection. "We had a mini-library in our garage," said Willie. Within the stacks of books, they found everything from classic literature to history and science books. If the Johnson children ever complained of not having anything to read, they were promptly sent to the garage to find something, Bill Johnson said. Now Willie reads anything and everything he can get his hands on. He enjoyed "The Lord of the Rings" books but also picks up an encyclopedia for fun. The whole family was able to enjoy Willie's success, which included free passes to Universal Studios - a trip Willie and his three siblings enjoyed. After the competition, a camera crew from Al Roker Productions came to Falls Church to film Willie at home and at school, where his classmates and teachers were interviewed. Footage on the top five students was to air in May on NBC.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops