Middle school students sat on chairs on the stage waiting anxiously to receive their word and start the competition. As the guests arrived and settled in, the judges prepared to pronounce this year’s  words. This was the scene at the annual Preuss middle school spelling bee that took place on the 31st of January, inside the Walton Center, during the fourth block.

A total of eight participants and four judges took part in the competition, with Ms. Hannah, 8th grade English, literacy enrichment, and advisory teacher, directing the competition. 

Leading up to this day, students competed against each other in their own English classes, and the winner of each classroom’s bee moved on to the schoolwide spelling bee. The finalists included: Jayden Huyng (‘29), Tony Troung (‘29), Weslee Reyes (‘29), Kynt Htun (‘29), Luqman Noor (‘28), Bonnie (28’), Yasir Jama (28’), and Gabriela Guadalupe (28’). 

This year’s judges were UCSD’s interns Mr. Lee, Ms. Kali, Mr. Clogston, and Ms. Eid.

 This was Ms. Hannah’s first time directing the spelling bee for both the 7th and 8th grade. She took over for Dr. Ensberg as the spelling bee director.

“It is so fun to see how into it the kids get both in the classroom competition and in the Walton center, but it honestly comes down to developing that confidence,” said Ms. Hannah.

Ms. Hannah started the contest by introducing all contestants and the judges to the audience, then directed for the judges to start the first round. During round 1, three students were eliminated from the competition and the other five spellers continued on to the next round, until only two spellers remained on the seventh round: Tony Troung and Jayden Huynh. 

After thirteen back-and-forth rounds between the last two contestants, a winner was decided. The word that the last two students were given to spell was “shadiness.” After Tony spelled “shadiness” incorrectly, it was now Jayden’s turn. If Jayden did not spell it correctly, then Tony would be able to rejoin. Fortunately for Jayden, Tony did not spell “shadiness” correctly and Jayden was then announced as the winner. 

“Just knowing that if I win, I could be in the upcoming spelling bee motivated me and  not only did I  have a fun time, but I also gained experience” said Tony (‘29).

The overall goal of this event was to let students have a chance to participate and have a winner to move onto the Annual County Spelling Bee and get a chance to compete for the National Spelling Bee.