Humans of SBOC featuring Kiruthiha Vimalakanthan
How constantly being pushed outside of your comfort zone can build self-confidence.
“SBOC works best when the whole community is involved. The children benefit from all the reinforcement that they get from family, school, and the broader community.”
Kiruthiha Vimalakanthan, Education Director & Intermediate Champion, 2003
Why did you first join Spelling Bee of Canda (SBOC) as a student?
It was encouraged by my teachers. I remember my parents telling me that my grade 1 teacher had recommended it because she felt that spelling was a strength of mine. I would spend my time correcting my teacher’s spelling mistakes. A classic 6-year-old with book smarts, but not social smarts.
I was a huge bookworm. I was reading by the time I was two and a half years old. It wasn’t only in English, but also Tamil, my first language. Most of my childhood stories involve me reading. My grandmother told me we’d be on the bus together and I’d be reading the street signs outside of the bus while looking out the window. People would be like “why is this toddler reading [out loud]?”
What is the most valuable impact that SBOC made on your life?
First, the importance of literacy and the love and space I give to literacy in my life. I grew up with the Spelling Bee of Canada and it was a huge proponent of reading, vocabulary, and the importance of spelling. I really value that until this day; it’s a huge part of my identity.
Second, self-confidence and assertiveness. As a competitor, I was put in a lot of situations where I had to be able to ask the right questions to know more about a word. Officials do get it [the spelling of words] wrong at times. Even now, as an official, I respect kids who can protest, “actually, I was right”. You need confidence to do that. I also started volunteering at 15 [years old], and when put in a position of authority at that age, arguing with parents made me have to be confident and assertive. This put me in a position where I practiced these skills and had to hold my own. Things can work against you like age or gender or whatever else, and I think I was able to look past that and get others to look past that too.
Who supported you most heavily during your time at SBOC?
My family and teachers. It’s hard to pick one person. At one point, my entire school was involved. My teachers were incredibly supportive and fostered my participation. Ultimately, I’d say my parents because they practiced with me, forced me to practice when I didn’t want to, and drove me to competitions. They kept me coming back year after year even as they faced the challenges of being relatively recent immigrants to Canada. The fact they were able to invest time in something that I enjoyed was invaluable.
SBOC works best when the whole community is involved. The children benefit from all the reinforcement that you get from family, school, and the broader community. I’m from Scarborough, as are many Spelling Bee participants. It’s one of the most diverse places in Canada, with lots of immigrants who work hard to make ends meet. They are resilient and invest in opportunities like this for their children.
What is your happiest moment or memory during your time as a spelling student?
The memory that comes to mind is when TVO was a big media sponsor and we had our finals at Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto. It was a huge production and it all seemed so intense. I remember thinking, “oh my god I get to go to the University of Toronto…it’s the hall where people graduate.” The whole process was a lot of fun.
Tell us about your most difficult experience in SBOC.
The year I lost to my friend Jeffrey Baer. At that point, we were rivals for a couple of years. I placed 2nd, so that was kind of rough. After that it was weirdly interesting how we still ran into each other because we were both students at the University of Waterloo. We ended up in the same extracurricular clubs too.
Spelling Bee teaches you to be a good loser too, even though losing is hard. The first time I started, I “lost it” when I misspelled a word because I was a lot younger. You grow past it, and you have next year.
Tell us about a passion or hobby of yours.
I work on languages quite a bit. I’ve got a streak on Duolingo for Japanese — almost a year, which I’m really excited about. I took Japanese courses in undergrad. I like learning new languages so at the start of the pandemic, I picked it up again on Duolingo because I was a little more familiar with it.
Initially, I grew up on anime and am still into it. At some point, I decided to learn the language itself. It was cool to learn an East Asian language. It’s one of the easier ones to learn because it’s very phonetic and the script/writing is relatively easy.
I learn languages by making connections. Spelling Bee helped with this — the structure of words and their etymology. Interestingly enough, for Japanese, some of the words and the grammatical rules are similar to how Tamil is structured. Whether that is actually the case or whether it’s just my brain making those connections, it helps.
Why did you choose to do your Ph.D. in psychology?
I was always interested in behaviour and understanding people. It’s really fulfilling to me. I also think there’s something to be said about being able to connect literacy and clinical psychology. I love books and reading stories, and each person inherently has a story. In therapy, that’s what you try to work out with them. I love to sit down and hear people’s stories.
Why have you chosen to research body image and compassion?
My main doctoral research is related to body image and compassion. It was out of interest in food and body which are universal concerns to everyone. Compassion was something that my supervisor was interested in. Learning about compassion has defined the work that I do both as a researcher and a therapist. Compassion research and compassion-focused therapy has the capacity to change lives. I think it’s also changed the way I see the world.
You have talked about the negative effects of comparing oneself to others. Why do you believe that people should embrace compassion instead?
It seems ironic coming from the Spelling Bee of Canada background, to shy away from comparison and competition. The idea that competition is bad for us is a simplified view. In moderation, it definitely has its place in society. Ultimately, though, the pandemic has shown us how much better we do when we work together instead of trying to compete with each other. When we get stuck in the competitive mentality, we see each other as threats and find reasons to distance ourselves. Compassion is about engaging with each other and caring for each other based on the fact that we are all human.
How can embracing compassion be useful to the students of SBOC?
Yes, absolutely. It’s important to reinforce that mentality in children. I see it already in competitors. It’s actually rare to see kids being cutthroat or mean to each other. It gladdens my heart when I see them cheer each other on and get to know each other. They were connecting with each other even when it was harder to do so this year with our virtual competition format. Everyone has the capacity for compassion so we must promote it and bring it out.
If you had the opportunity to go back in time and speak with your younger self, what would you say to her?
“You’re gonna be great.” As a child, I was definitely a lot less confident than I am now. Spelling Bee made a huge contribution to building my confidence. I would want to go back and say “I’m so proud of you and everything is going to work out, and you’re going to be great.”
This interview is part of the Humans of SBOC series by Erika Carreon, where her passion for storytelling shines through. As a language lover, Erika dedicates her time to learning Spanish.
