by DCist contributor Catherine McCarthy

Anamika Veeramani wants to attend Harvard and become a cardiovascular surgeon one day. Her propensity for the medical sciences certainly served her well Friday night at the Scripps National Spelling Bee as she correctly spelled “stromuhr” — a device that measures the amount and speed of blood flowing through an artery — to become the 2010 National Champion.

Medical terms proved to be dream makers and heart breakers for several of the ten championship finalists competing Friday night. Veeramani, an eighth-grader from Cleveland, Ohio, correctly spelled her first word, “epiphysis” (the end of a long bone), while Potomac’s own Lanson Tang went out on “leishmanic” (relating to infectious diseases caused by flagellate protozoans). Tang was front and center among the ten semifinalists on stage at the start of the evening, nailing “rhabdomyoma” (a benign tumor made up of striated muscle fibers).

Tang, who will attend high school in D.C. next year, told DCist he credits his mother, who allows him “several hours every day” to read books in elementary school as part of his home-schooling schedule, with expanding his vocabulary. Tang has read “hundreds, thousands” of books but favors Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle.

While many students spend hundreds of hours studying for the high-stakes national competition — grand prize is $30,000 cash, accompanied by fame and glory — a bit of inspiration can strike at any time, be it in a favorite novel or in the form of a menu.

“She should know this,” said 2008, 2009 and 2010 national competitor 12-year-old Nicholas Rushlow with a knowing smile as he watched 13-year-old championship finalist Elizabeth Platz of New Carrolton, Ohio correctly spell out g-n-o-c-c-h-i. “She had it for dinner last night.”