A sixth grader from St. Petersburg will face off in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee later this month. Vlada Kozhevnikova, 12, attends the Pinellas Academy of Math & Science and is one of 12 contestants from Florida among the 243 participants in the event. She is being sponsored by the Rays Baseball Foundation and Rowdies Soccer Fund. Kozhevnikova competed in last year's competition and was eliminated in the sixth round after misspelling the word "stalace." The middle-schooler likes reading fiction books, her favorite being the Harry Potter series, and wanted to be an author when she grows up, according to the spelling bee's website. She wrote a story for a writing contest and is currently working on a fantasy thriller book. She knows both Russian and English and is learning Spanish. She also plays the clarinet and likes to play soccer and swim. Last year, the spelling bee champion was a 12-year-old from Tampa. Bruhat Soma was the second straight winner from the Tampa Bay area after Dev Shah from Largo won in 2023. Kids from across the country will go head-to-head in Washington D.C. starting May 27 for the preliminaries and the finals will be May 29 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.