Ever heard of words like “nunatak” and “scherenschnitte”? Well, they were the two winning words from last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee. To face words like these, one must reach the national level. However, there are many tiers to get through before reaching the finals which are held in Washington, D.C. To make it that far, one must start somewhere.

Each year at TBS, students in each of Benjamin’s middle school English classes compete against one another for the chance to make the school finals which are held in the BPAC. The two winners from each class qualify. On January 19 and 20, students participated in their class spelling bees which allowed the top two spellers in each English class to qualify for the school bee on January 27. Many English classes graded the students on how well they did, so the further along they advanced in the class bee, the more points they accumulated. Some students also received extra credit for qualifying for the school bee. Those students who qualified are as follows: sixth grade – Jane Boyland, Spencer Cohen, Alexander Nussbaum, Camilo Saiz, Jack Savery, Luke Skonieczny, Sophia Smith, Sydney Steinger, Caroline Yancey, and Jake Zur; seventh grade – Lukas Burnett, Carol Chen, Olivia Cornett, Briley Crisafi, Alex Michelon, Sebastian Nachilly, Aiden Neidoff, Hannah Perez, Nadia Poncy, and Andrew Weisz; eighth grade – Jack Abrams, Christian Baldari, Christian Cassanelli, Leslie Berg, Royce Howley, Tommy McCloskey, Caroline Moody, and Caroline Small.

However, despite dangling the carrot of extra points, sixth-grade English teacher Mrs. Denise Ponchock feels strongly about students being involved in the spelling bee.

“Participation acknowledges that we, as a school, feel that spelling is important,” she explained.” Some must work harder than others to spell well, but the ability to spell well does say a great deal about one. As an elite college preparatory school, we would be remiss if we did not promote the importance of spelling through student participation in the spelling bee.”

Dean of Academics and seventh-grade English teacher Dr. Cristina James helps coordinate the class bees and middle school bee.

“This is only the second year we have had students qualify from their English classes.” said James. “The fact that we do it this way is to invest it with meaning for the students. If all have studied

the words, they are more interested in the competition to come. We have medals for the classroom winners and a trophy for the winner of the Middle School bee. Mrs. Benjamin was very invested in the spelling bee and we want this one dedicated to her.”

Mrs. Benjamin was a big part of the spelling bee, and loved the event. She had a bell that she rang every time someone misspelled a word, and the Middle School will be using that same bell this year in her honor.

Since there are sixteen English classes in the middle school and two students will be representing each class, there are a total of thirty-two spellers competing against each other to get to the regional spelling bee. As was the case last year, the regional bee will be hosted by The Benjamin School. One middle school winner and one lower school winner from Benjamin will represent the school at the regional bee.

Current eighth grader Royce Howley won the middle school bee last year, and participated in the regional bee.

“ I definitely intend to make it to regionals [again this year],” said Howley.  My goal is to make it all the way to nationals.

An excellent speller and fierce competitor, Howley had some suggestions for this year’s crop of spellers.

“I would suggest studying words from grades six to eight and the advanced list given by Dr. James. Whenever you have time you should study, like in the car rather than listening to music and being on Snapchat.”

Head of Middle School Mr. Charles Hagy enjoys the bee and believes it contains some important life lessons. “I love the spelling bee,” said Mr. Hagy, “and I love competition. I think competition is necessary and good. It teaches you how to win, but more importantly, it teaches you how to lose. It teaches you how to work toward a goal and be part of something bigger than you, and it gives kids a chance who don’t normally stand out, to shine.”