Middle school student wins regional spelling bee

Advancing to national competition

Pennridge Central Middle School seventh grader Priana Khant was named the winner of the Scripps Bucks-Mont Regional Spelling Bee on March 19 and will move on to compete in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon City, Maryland, on June 1 and 2. The national bee will be broadcast on the ION television network and will be hosted by LeVar Burton.

“Priana bested 27 other competitors, correctly spelling ‘kaleidoscope’ in the seventh round of the spelling bee, the official regional qualifier for students who live and attend school in Bucks and Montgomery counties. She won the spelling bee at her home school with the winning word, ‘sardine,'” a release said.

Second and third place winners were Ethan Luginbuhl, a Pennridge North Middle School eighth grader, and Perkiomen Valley Middle SchoolWest seventh grader Lily Shanaman, respectively.

Priana won a weeklong, expense-paid trip for themselves and one parent/guardian to the Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, DC during the week of Memorial Day; a trophy; the Samuel Lewis Sugarman Award of a 2022 US Mint proof set; a one-year subscription for Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online Dictionary; and a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium, the release said.

“We are thrilled to work with our community and educators around the region to provide this opportunity to students,” said Alan Malachowski, president of PSEA-Mideastern Region. “We are especially thankful for our team of volunteers who have worked diligently behind the scenes to bring the spelling bee back to an in-person format. Our students have worked so hard to get to this level of competition, and it’s great to have them back.”

The regional bee is sponsored by the Mideastern Region of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (MER/PSEA), the Council for the Advancement of Public Schools (CAPS) Pennridge Community Education Foundation, Perkasie Rotary and Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

CAPS is an initiative of MER/PSEA, founded to promote the success of Bucks and Montgomery County public schools.