Four years later, Avant-garde is attending the University of Maryland. Her family now lives in Prince George\u2019s County.<\/p>\n
But she never phoned in a favor to help make it happen. In fact, when she applied, she wasn\u2019t entirely sure the offer still stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was definitely in the back of my mind a few years later as I began my college search,\u201d she said. \u201cI actually ended up getting a different scholarship. But I\u2019m here for free, and that\u2019s all that matters!\u201d<\/p>\n
Avant-garde is attending Maryland on a Banneker-Key Scholarship, studying cell biology and molecular genetics. She\u2019s also working on her sixth book \u2014 one of the other five, titled \u201cIt\u2019s Not Bragging If It\u2019s True,\u201d<\/a> was a New York Times bestseller.<\/p>\n \u201cThink of it as like a big sister giving advice,\u201d she said, adding that she herself is a big sister. \u201cGiving you advice on confidence, really promoting self-confidence, and kind of learning how to work on time management. Truly, the main focus of it is self-confidence, like learning how to believe in yourself and believe in the work that you\u2019ve done and believe that you are worthy of being in the spaces that you\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n Those are the kind of thoughts she said helped her win the Spelling Bee in 2021. Her winning word sounds like \u201cMaria\u201d but was actually \u201cmurraya.\u201d It\u2019s a Latin-Swedish word for a subtropical evergreen plant found in Asia.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my pet peeves about my winning word, murraya, is that it doesn\u2019t sound like a very hard word. And the fact that I made a joke connecting it to Bill Murray \u2026 I think it really made people think that it\u2019s a really easy word,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot stress this enough, no, it\u2019s not,\u201d she insisted with a smile. \u201cEverybody\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, I would have been able to spell that.\u2019 You always spell that because I said, \u2018Oh, like Bill Murray.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n![\"woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Photo-Oct-01-2025-8-25-48-AM-600x450.jpg\")
<\/a>In 2021, Zaila Avant-garde made history as the first Black American champion to win the Scripps spelling bee. Now, the 18-year-old is going to the University of Maryland on a full ride scholarship. (WTOP\/John Domen)<\/p>\n