Rebecca Sealfon

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Rebecca Sealfon (born July 8, 1983) is a United States home schooled student primarily known for winning the 1997 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She is one of the most well-known spelling bee winners, spelling her final word, "euonym," by screaming out each letter.

As she represented the New York Daily News, the Daily News' entire front page the day after her triumph was a picture of Sealfon, arms raised in victory, with the headline "EUONYM!" The New York Post, a competitor to the Daily News, also published a photograph of Sealfon but altered the photo to remove the 'New York Daily News' text and increase the size of the '140', her competition number, on the placard she was wearing, removing any indication her sponsorship was from the Daily News.^[1]

After receiving home schooling, she attended Stuyvesant High School^[2] and Princeton University, where she majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She is now a graduate student in the Department of Biology at Duke University.

Because of her animated personality, she was at least partially the inspiration for the homeschooled "Rebecca Cutswald" character in the Hooked on Monkey Phonics episode of the television series South Park and has appeared in Obey Giant materials."^{[citation needed]} She was also featured on the ESPN series Cheap Seats (original air date 31 March 2004) where commentators enjoyed poking fun at Rebecca's "magic fingers."^{[citation needed]} She was frequently ridiculed by Jim Rome on his sports radio program as well.

Rebecca was also ridiculed on the The Bob & Tom Show, becoming the subject of one of the show's bits ("After Hours Sports with Harry Caray"). She is reported to be a listener of the show, despite several disparaging remarks made by the shows hosts.