By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 5, 2024 — On June 1, 2023, Dev Shah correctly spelled “psammophile” to become the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. A 14-year-old speller from Largo, Florida, Dev won during his third appearance at the national competition, kicking off a year of exciting opportunities.
The 231 elementary and middle school students in last year’s National Spelling Bee were as young as 9 and as old as 14. Contestants were from every US state along 11 students from The Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
The Bahamas was well represented by Wes Underwood, a 13-year-old Grade 8 student at Samuel Guy Pinder All-Age School in Spanish Wells. Wes successfully competed in Rounds One and Two of the Spelling Bee preliminaries, correctly spelling “Apabhramsa,” and he got the correct meaning of “legume”, but in Round Three of the Preliminaries, he was eliminated on the word “roughage.”
Bee Week 2024 will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. On May 26, more than 200 spellers from across the country and around the world will arrive in the Washington, D.C., area. For these spellers, Bee Week will include much more than three days of nationally-televised competition.
Until recently, I entertained serious doubts that The Bahamas would enter a speller in this year’s Scripps Bee because as I noted in an article two weeks ago, we were nearing the end of January, and the Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training had not yet indicated whether it would sponsor the annual Bahamas National Spelling Bee (BNSB) to select a spelling champion to participate in the Scripps Bee.
As I also noted in that article, as the person responsible for introducing the Scripps National Spelling Bee to The Bahamas in 1998 when I was editor of The Nassau Guardian, it would have been a national disgrace if The Bahamas did not enter a speller in the Scripps Bee.
However, my concerns dissipated when CatholicSchools Bahamas recently held the 57th Archdiocesan Spelling Bee and announced that the winner Janina Lee, a student at Sts. Francis & Joseph School, and second-place finisher Sean Cargill Jr. will represent the Catholic Board of Education schools at the 2024 Bahamas National Spelling Bee (BNSB), for which a date has still not yet been set. In past years, preliminary competitions to select participants for the BNSB were held in New Providence and Family Island Districts starting as early as November the previous year.
Dating back to shortly after I introduced the Scripps Bee to The Bahamas, I strongly advocated for the establishment of Spelling Bee Clubs in schools in the country, and I still think this is a good idea for the Hon. Glenys Hanna-Martin, Minister of Education, Technical and Vocational Training, to implement in our schools’ curricula or as an after-school activity.
Meanwhile, here’s a link to a Spelling Bee List of Words that can be found on the Scripps National Spelling Bee website:
SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE STUDY LIST: Words of the Champions is divided into three difficulty levels, ranked One Bee, Two Bee and Three Bee. These are great words to challenge you, whether you’re just getting started in spelling bees or if you’ve already participated in several. At the beginning of each level, you’ll find the School Spelling Bee Study List words. For any classroom, grade-level or school spelling bee, study the 150-word One Bee School Spelling Bee Study List, the 150-word Two Bee School Spelling Bee Study List and the 150-word Three Bee School Spelling Bee Study List: a total of 450 words.
https://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/2024%20Words%20of%20the%20Champions.pdf
