We decided to share this article with readers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean. The Nassau Guardian published this article by Nasia Colebrooke on Monday, March 23, 2026. The article can be found here.
Nasia Colebrooke
Guardian Lifestyles Reporter
nasia@nasguard.com
With the title of Bahamas national spelling champion inked in the books, Caerwyn Turnquest’s sights are now set on representing the country at the Scripps Spelling Bee. The 10-year-old King’s College School student said he just wants to do his best.
“I’m really excited to represent The Bahamas, but on the other hand, I’m nervous with the preparation and all the other stuff,” said Caerwyn. “It’s not like I’d be upset if I don’t win [Scripps]. I just want to try my best.”
Felix Wells, 12, an eighth-grade student at N.G.M. Major High School, Long Island, placed second at the Bahamian national competition and joins Caerwyn at Scripps, May 26-28, in Washington, D.C.
Caerwyn, a repeat national competitor, who finally locked down his win, said he’s not going into the May competition thinking of it as a competition, but more as fun.
“I know that if I made it all the way to Scripps, I did my best. If I win, I’ll feel really good about it because it’ll be The Bahamas’ first time winning,” said the tween.
A Bahamian’s best Scripps showing was from four-time national spelling champion, Roy Seligman, who made the finals of the 93rd spelling bee in 2021.
Roy finished tied for fourth place with three other spellers, and was the first Bahamian to advance to the finals of the prestigious competition since The Bahamas began competing at Scripps in 1998.
To prepare for his upcoming Scripps appearance, the son of Roderick and Beverley Turnquest said he plans to focus more on the etymology of Greek and Latin words.
“For the nationals, I had to study the normal list. But I heard that for Scripps, they go on to random words, so, I’m going to have to start studying the Latin and Greek origin and roots of the words.”
If he did happen to pull out the Scripps win, he said it would give him a sense of finality that he could finish what he started.
Caerwyn was seven years old and in the third grade when he entered his first spelling bee. He was eliminated from that competition when he missed the letter “L” in the word “curly”. Since then, he said he has been determined to win every competition he entered. That became reality when he won the 29th annual Bahamas National Spelling Bee (BSNB) on Sunday, March 15, which was held at SuperClubs Breezes.
After 13 rounds of spelling and oral vocabulary, Caerwyn beat out 23 other contestants when he correctly spelled the word “graticule”, which is defined as a grid of longitudinal and latitudinal lines on which maps are drawn.
Caerwyn walked away with $1,000 cash, which he has not yet determined what to do with it. He also received a laptop from Custom Computers; a watch from Sunisles Watch & Clock Centre; a one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica; the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, a prize given to competitors of the Scripps National Spelling Bee which provides a $100 U.S. Savings Bond; training sessions with the BNSB national coach; an all-expenses-paid trip for himself and his coach to attend Scripps; and spending money, from the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union.
For his second-place finish, Felix was awarded $750, a watch from Sunisles Watch & Clock, training sessions by the BNSB coach, and an all-expenses-paid trip to compete at Scripps.
Caerwyn was the first King’s College School (The Bahamas) student to represent the institution in the BNSB competition and soon to be at Scripps, a feat which school principal Matteo Rossetti is proud of.
“This is a special moment for Caerwyn, his family, and for the whole school. It is an incredible honor for King’s to be represented for the first time at the [Bahamas] National Spelling Bee,” said Rossetti.
“Caerwyn has embodied our school values through his ambition, his intellectual curiosity, and his willingness to embrace challenges and do difficult things. His success reflects not only talent and real composure under pressure, but also habits of excellence. Spelling at this level is about pattern recognition, a deep understanding of language, and the ability to perform across multiple rounds. We hope this is the first of many students from King’s College School who will step forward and compete at this level.”
Caerwyn, whose favorite subjects are math and history, has maintained an “outstanding” assessment in English, French, geography, history, math and science. King’s College School uses the Cambridge International Curriculum as opposed to a grade point average.
“Math makes my brain think more and boosts my mental capacity,” said Caerwyn. “History is just interesting [getting to learn] about all the stuff that happened in the world before.”
When he’s not preparing himself to compete in spelling bees, he indulges in his hobbies that he said include playing chess, preparing for debates and coding computers.
When Caerwyn and Felix touch down in Washington, D.C., in the summer, they will be immersed in Bee Week, a week-long experience for spellers and their families that includes special events, educational workshops, and excursions.
The Scripps winner takes home a $50,000 cash prize, a commemorative medal and the Scripps Cup. Merriam-Webster tacks on a $2,500 cash prize and a reference library.
Scripps began in 1925 when nine newspapers united to host a spelling bee. Only nine spellers participated in that first competition. Little did they know, a century later, their literacy effort would reach millions of students each year.
Frank Neuhauser was 11 years old when he won the first bee. He was also the first male winner. He won a stack of gold coins worth $500 and a visit with United States President Calvin Coolidge.
The first female champion was Pauline Bell (1926).
Jody-Anne Maxwell, from Jamaica, became the first Black winner and first non-American bee champion in 1998. Zaila Avant-garde became the first Black American winner in 2021.
The youngest competitor was Edith Fuller, who was six years old in 2017.
In 2019, eight co-winners were dubbed the “Octochamps” and hold the Guinness World Record for “Most winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee (single competition)”.
Competitors from Texas comprise the winningest state with 16. It is also the only double-digit state. The next winningest state is Ohio with nine.
The longest word was “scherenschnitte” (2015); the shortest word was “luge” (1984).
The longest one-day competition took place in 1957. The 30th Scripps National Spelling Bee started at 9 a.m. and lasted until 6:55 p.m. – almost 10 hours. Dana Bennett, 13, from Denver, and Sandra Owen, 14, from Navarre, Ohio, were declared co-champions after the word list was exhausted. Both failed to spell the final word: “schappe”.
Competition rules now state that a spell-off is used in the interest of time.
There have been four years when a spelling bee was canceled – 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; 1945 because of World War II; 1944 because of World War II; and 1943 because of World War II.