内容摘要：The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.35 points, less than 0.1%, to 41,859.09

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.35 points, less than 0.1%, to 41,859.09

for the competition.Even for those former champs who’ve moved on entirely, the competition has remained a cornerstone of their lives. The Associated Press spoke to seven champs about their membership in this exclusive club.

Anamika Veeramani, the 2010 champion, graduated from Yale in three years and got her medical degree at Harvard. A resident in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, she is training to become a craniofacial surgeon, and the focused and disciplined approach that led her to the spelling bee title has been a throughline in her life since.“You attain a level of mastery over a subject that you wouldn’t have otherwise, and that feeling of mastery is very similar across fields,” the 29-year-old Veeramani says. “Once you know a subject well enough, you’re able to really just play with that subject and and come up with things, and there’s just a joy and delight in what you’re doing. ... I’m going to spend the rest of my career in surgery chasing that.”Molly Baker was never uncomfortable about her past as the 1982 spelling-bee champion, and in the right context, she’s happy to bring it up — as an icebreaker or a standout line on her resumé.

“Oh, I was never cool,” Baker says. “I knew people who were state tennis champs, and they were, you know, in their own way equally as nerdy. I would always joke about it, that I was queen of the dorks.”Baker, 55, worked as a staff writer at the Wall Street Journal and wrote a book, “High Flying Adventures in the Stock Market.” She’s now a freelance journalist, and she says there’s no question her spelling bee title helped her career.

“One summer in college I was an intern at, it was called ‘Real Life with Jane Pauley.’ It was an evening magazine TV news show,” Baker says. “And that, I’m sure, was partly a result of having been interviewed on the ‘Today’ show by Jane Pauley in 1982. I was not shy about saying that when I applied.”

Jon Pennington knew he was socially awkward when he won the bee in 1986. He even wore his mother’s bulky sunglasses on the bee stage because the bright lights bothered him.“The question is, are you treating employees differently based on race?” Lennington said. “Are you making employees feel uncomfortable about their race or gender or sexual identity?”

Proponents of ERGs list numerous benefits for employees and management. For participants, the groups are places to find community, develop leadership skills and create a channel for sharing their views with higher-ups. Companies often sponsor affinity groups as a tool for recruiting and retaining diverse employees.“Employee engagement is great because it creates, typically, higher effort and retention,” said Helena Pagano, chief people and culture officer at insurance and financial services firm Sun Life. “One way that you drive engagement is making people feel like they had a voice. They had a place to express opinions and drive policies and outcomes that matter in the company.”

England, the consultant, was working at a bank call center when he joined and then took on a leadership role in an ERG for people who identify as LGBTQIA+.“I was terrified to speak publicly, and because of that role, I had to do a lot of that,” England said. “I was able to develop skills that were completely unrelated to my day job.”