The atmosphere in the Upper School (US) Community Room shifted as students filled the seats to watch their peers during CAB.The final round of the second annual US Spelling Bee, held on Friday, Feb. 14, was about to begin.
US Dean of Teaching and Learning Michael Chapman and US English Teacher Talayah Hudson organized the event for students to have fun in a competitive environment, Mr. Chapman said. One of the goals of the Spelling Bee was to challenge students to spell unfamiliar words, using language they already knew and English conventions, he said.
“I would say that there are honestly a couple of goals … one is to have fun with the English language, get to learn new words that you haven’t heard before, be able to apply critical thinking to think about how the word you know could be used to help you put together a spelling of this unknown word,” he said.
To qualify for the finals, contestants had o take a short quiz with 24 words on Feb. 7. The 14 highest-scoring students advanced as finalists.
Contestant Sebastian Southworth’25 liked the event because of its low stakes and accessible entry. Sebastian said he didn’t need to prepare much for the Spelling Bee. Instead, he relied on past knowledge of words from books and life to help him through the competition.
The finalists had 90 seconds to ask the word to be repeated, said slower, or used in a sentence, or to ask for the word’s origin, definition, and any alternate pronunciations. “This year, I really decided to take my time and think about the root of the word in question because they give you 90 seconds, so why not use all of it,” contestant Vartan Arakelian ’26 said.
In the finals, each competitor had to spell words correctly until their opponents misspelled a word. Then, the contestant who spelled an additional word accurately would win the competition.
Correctly spelling “prestidigitation,” Vartan took the title of Spelling Bee Champion. After 10 rounds of back-and- forth spelling, Keenan Billings ’25 won second place with the word “baccalaureate,” and Asher Esty ’25 took third.
“The Spelling Bee itself was a fun way to spend the last block of the week,” Vartan said. “I just felt like it was something that I would enjoy doing with my friends.”
The first-place prize was a $50 Amazon gift card, the second-place speller received a miniature Merriam-Webster dictionary and a stuffed Minecraft bee, and the third-place award was a copy of “Word Power Made Easy,” a favorite book of Ms. Hudson.
Some contestants felt the difficulty level of words varied across rounds. Sebastian said he noticed inconsistency.
“I felt it needed a bit more consistency … It would benefit the competition,” he said. “Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t get lucky.”
For others, such as spectator Andrew Johnson ’27, the difficulty wasn’t noticeable and did not hinder the event overall.
“I thought it was pretty interesting to watch people spell … and battle out for second place,” Andrew said. “The word difficulty seemed good for the most part.”
Spectator David Zhou ’28, however, agreed with Sebastian.
“All the contestants did a great job in the Spelling Bee, though for some words, I thought they were easier than others, but I guess it’s just random,” he said.
Regardless, spectators were still excited about watching or even competing in the event next year, David said.
“This year I tried out but next year, I’m determined to try and make the cut.”
