May 30 (UPI) -- Students from throughout the United States hope to advance past Wednesday's third round of the 2018 National Spelling Bee, the largest iteration of the contest ever held.
In what has grown into a three-day competition in Maryland, 519 students between 8 and 15 years old are competing in preliminary rounds Tuesday and Wednesday to reach Thursday's final round.
This year's bee has the largest-ever pool of competitors because organizers approved nearly 240 additional students to compete even if they didn't qualify through a regional competition. That includes spellers who either won their school's bee or have been a previous national finalist.
"I think it's pretty cool," Jerry Li, who won his school bee and came in fifth at his competitive regional bee, told USA Today. "Without it there would be so many less spellers that are able to experience this opportunity. So I think it's a really nice thing."
The winner of the 2018 National Spelling Bee will receive nearly $43,000 in prize money and a replica Encyclopedia Britannica set from 1768. They'll also win a trip to New York City to appear on Live with Kelly and Ryan and a trip to Hollywood, Calif., to appear on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
The first National Spelling Bee was held in 1925 and organized by nine newspapers. Texas has claimed the greatest number of winners with 11 titles and is followed by Ohio with 9 and Colorado, Pennsylvania and Tennessee with 7.
Since 1999, Indian Americans have dominated the Spelling Bee, taking home all but four wins.
Balu Natarajan, who became the first Indian American to win in 1985, will watch his son compete this week. Natarajan said he is more nervous now than he was when he competed.
"Like anything else for a parent, it is much more emotional watching your kid when you don't have any control over it," Natarajan told NewJersey.com. "I have a much deeper appreciation for my parents and their emotional state when I was competing."
Students from throughout the country talked about their experiences competing Tuesday.
"It's just a lot, it was really fun, I was really nervous to go on stage," Anna Penird, an eighth-grader at Red Jacket Middle School in Shortsville, N.Y., told WROC.
Teacher Hope Gibson said her student Emily Fouts, an eighth-grader at Vera C. O'Leary Middle School in Twin Falls, Idaho, was ready to compete.
"Preparing for the spelling bee, she studied for hours and hours and hours to make sure she's ready for that," Gibson told the Twin Falls Times-News.