From in-class spelling tests to school-wide bees, this year’s “top spellers” in the Westerville City School District (WCSD) are Blendon Middle School seventh-grade student Minji Lee and Walnut Springs Middle School eighth-grade student Bennett Keyser.
Each student earned a free, one-year subscription to Britannica Online for Kids from Encyclopedia Britannica, valued at $69.95. Their performance on a Scripp’s 50-word online written test also qualified them to advance and compete at the state level and possibly the national level.
Co-facilitated by the WCSD Gifted Education Department and language art teachers, the purpose of the spelling bee is “to help students improve spelling, increase vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.”
Scripps is the nation’s largest and longest-running spelling be administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company. Scripps Spelling Bees are sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe as well as the Bahamas, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.