Lakewood Ranch student earns birth at state geography bee

The sky might be the limit for Braden River Elementary fifth-grader Hope Tudor, but she has her sights set on the sea.

“My dream is to be a marine biologist researcher because I love the ocean,” Tudor said. “I want to make discoveries deeper than ever before. People on Earth know more about the surface of the moon than the depths of the ocean, so I want to discover all the things that are missing.”

One thing that isn't missing is Tudor's knowledge of geography. She has qualified for the National Geographic Bee state level competition March 31 at Jacksonville University. The national championship will be held May 14-17 at the National Geographic Society Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Although the competition includes students from fourth up to eighth grade, Tudor is confident.

“It feels great to be younger,” Tudor said. “It shows that even if you are younger than everyone else, you can do whatever you want, and change the world. I am nervous, though, because I don’t know how good the other people are.”

Tudor was 11 months old when she was adopted from Jiangxi, China. She said the world always has fascinated her.

So it was a match when Braden River Elementary teacher Kelly Gavin, who works with gifted students, offered Tudor the chance to dive into a geography competition. Tudor has been with Gavin once a week since she was in second grade.

“All of my students tried to qualify for the state geography bee, but only Hope did,” Gavin said. “Since she’s qualified, she has really taken geography to heart. She eats, breathes and lives it now, and she really want to win. I give her so many things to study, but she’s also gone out and bought books on her own. Hope has always been a very eager learner.”

Tudor’s mother, Debra, said her daughter always has absorbed all that life threw at her.

“One time, she came up to me and said that she had something to tell me,” Debra Tudor said. “She told me that when she is bored, she reads the dictionary. I cracked up.”

Sometimes, Tudor’s constant desire to learn new things becomes a little overwhelming for Debra Tudor.

“She is animal crazy,” Debra Tudor said. “She loves locating where different species of dolphins are living, and she will always give me random facts — so many that your head wants to explode.”

It is rare Tudor is without a book in her hand.

She “gobbles” books up, Debra Tudor said.

“I love reading,” Hope Tudor said. “You can go anywhere in the world. There are no boundaries when you read.”