Word-Spouting Teens Compete for College Funds

Malodorous. Mercurial. Vociferous. Do you know what these words mean? Does your teenager? Forget football. It's never too early to groom your child for greatness as the next National Vocabulary Champion.

This March, after a grueling search across America for linguistic royalty, a king or queen will be crowned. It's not exactly Survivor, but GSN, an interactive game television network, is planning on broadcasting the contest in April.

If your child hasn't already been named a finalist, it's too late for this year. Fifty high school students have already qualified for the final round through citywide competitions and exams held online. They were pulled from a pool of 30,000 students nationwide. After three challenging rounds of vocabulary calisthenics, the last student standing at the finals will win $40,000 towards the cost of college tuition, and the title of National Vocabulary Champion.

Dena Kaplan, GSN's senior vice president of marketing, who came up with the idea for the event says: "Our vision is to make the NVC a cultural phenomenon. The NVC has been overwhelmingly embraced by a cadre of higher education officials, educators, politicians, celebrities, advertisers, teachers, parents, and most importantly, students. We believe that this heartfelt competition has all the natural ingredients for compelling television."

Will it be enough to make vocabulary spouting cool? We can only hope. Tune in with your kids in April. And in the meantime, start practicing for next year!