The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
5 state spellers move ahead in national bee
Competition on Wednesday, Thusday will determine champ
WASHINGTON — Five of Connecticut’s best young spellers have earned slots in the next round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, an annual competition that began Tuesday morning with more than 500 spelling whizzes from every state.
Hailing from Bridgeport, Bethel, West Haven, Guilford and Rocky Hill, the five state contestants who moved on spelled their words correctly in an oral spelling round, advancing to Wednesday’s second day of competition.
The spellers walked on stage Tuesday having already taken a written exam. For the preliminaries, spellers must complete two oral spelling rounds. Their results, combined with the written test scores, will determine whether they advance to the finals on Thursday.
For Janelle Newell, an 11-year-old sixthgrader from the Multicultural Magnet School in Bridgeport, Tuesday’s round was a breeze because she had already studied the word “obrok” when the judges asked her to spell it.
“I had no idea what word I was going to get, it was kind of random, but I was really happy when I recognized the word,” Newell said. Obrok is a yearly tax once paid by Russian peasants.
Back in Bridgeport, her social studies teacher, Susan P. Heilweil, said Newell’s homeroom periods have been spent helping her practice for the bee.
“She also spent study halls going through thesaurus and dictionaries,” Heilweil said.
Jen Sciarappa, who runs Multicultural’s school spelling bee, said Newell is a hard worker.
“I had her in my class last year,” Sciarappa said. “I know from the minute we give out the spelling list she goes home and studies a lot. You can just tell she knew all the words on the list.”
“We are all rooting for her, and are so proud of her,” added Monica Tarnowski, Newell’s homeroom teacher.
In Washington, Roderick Chittem, a 13-year-old from Bethel Middle School, said his nerves haven’t subsided since he spelled “sirocco” correctly. Sirocco is a hot wind that blows from North Africa to southern Europe.
Despite the onstage success, he said he’s worried that the result of his written exam won’t secure him a spot in the finals.
“I want to represent my school in the finals, but I don’t know if my test score will be enough,” Chittem said. “It feels amazing that I could be there at all for my school.”
Jerry Li, a 13-year-old from E.C. Adams Middle School in Guilford, said he was nervous because he was the first to step behind the microphone among 519 other contestants. But after he correctly spelled “unicameral” — meaning a single legislative chamber — he decided to take a break for the rest of the day.
“When I’m competing, I just try to get as much information as I can so I can make sure I know what word I’m trying to spell,” Li said. “Then, I can just spell the word.”
Arin Bhandari, a 13-year-old from Hopkins School who lives in West Haven, and Aritra Banerjee, an 11-year-old from the Noah Webster House West Hartford Historical Society who lives in Rocky Hill, will compete Wednesday.
After the next oral spelling round Wednesday, the number of spellers will be knocked down to 50 contestants for the finals. ESPN livestreams the entire competition from Tuesday to Thursday evening.