WASHINGTON - A whirlwind publicity tour is underway for Kavya Shivashankar -- Olathe's new Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
She won the contest live on ESPN Thursday night. Friday, she was on CNN, MSNBC and the SportsCenter Show.
Kavya talked with NBC Action News Reporter Chris Hernandez on the phone between her other interviews and she said she's having fun, but she's really tired because she didn't get much sleep overnight.
She'll be jetting between L.A. and New York over the next few days. You can see her on Regis and Kelly Tuesday and the Jimmy Kimmel show on Wednesday.
"This has been my dream for so long; I've always wanted to win the Bee. I was really excited and ecstatic." said Kavya.
The 13-year-old seems to be getting more famous by the hour. The spelling champ proves she can hold her own in national, live interviews, even when talking about meeting the vice-president's wife.
"Afterward she came and hugged me and greeted me and congratulated me it was really nice to meet her. It was just an honor," said Shivashankar.
Here in the metro, one of Kavya's teachers described watching the win.
"I jumped up and down and then the phone started ringing for an hour and a half with all of the teachers calling," said Sandra Baze, who teaches Kavya in the gifted program at California Trail Junior High in the Olathe School District.
Baze said when it comes to the competition,"…she wants to achieve, but achieve for the sake of learning, not to be better than everyone else. She just truly wants to be her best."
We interviewed Kavya last weekend just before she left for the contest. She talked about her training.
"This year, my Dad and I have just been expanding the word list and learning more words this year."
And we met her 8-year-old sister Vonya, who may start spelling competitively next year.
"My sister practices a lot more than me but she teaches me a lot of stuff," said Vonya.
So watch out spellers, the Shivashankar family is loading up another competitor. The girls' father, Mirle, has been the coach all these years.
Kavya said she will now turn her attention to science. She wants to be a neurosurgeon and also to find a way to fund more cancer treatment clinics in India. She recently lost a relative to cancer.
