Minh Nguyen, an eighth-grader at St. Charles Borromeo School in Hampshire, holds his trophy from the 2017 Kane County spelling bee hosted by the Kane County Regional Office of Education.

Minh took part in the Scripps National Spelling Bee May 28-June 4 in Washington D.C. His final standing was unavailable at press time.

He is the son of Thao and Cao Nguyen and is keeping up a family tradition.

In 2011, Minh’s sister Tam, then a seventh-grader at St. Charles Borromeo School, also won the Kane County bee and made the trip to Washington for the national bee.

Their brother Hieu, took  second place at the Kane County bee in 2013 after more than 40 rounds of spelling.

Hieu and Minh were also in Illinois State finals for the National Geography Bee. Hieu was in the finals in 2010-2013, and Minh in 2017

All of them are pianists playing for multiple choirs at St. Thomas More in Elgin, and St. Charles Borromeo in Hampshire.