Seventh-grade student Amelia Jack won the spelling bee at Valley Stream South High School for the combined seventh- and eighth-grade competition, following a multi-stage process that began in individual classrooms and culminated in a schoolwide event.
Jack, 12, advanced to the final competition after participating in a classroom spelling bee. According to English Department Chair Vanessa Barbone, each class in seventh and eighth grade holds its own bee, and classroom winners move on to the schoolwide round. In some cases, when multiple students tie or score perfectly, more than one student advances. In Jack’s class, six students qualified and competed in the schoolwide bee.
The competition began with grade-level words in the first round. While the intent was to allow students to feel comfortable, eliminations still occurred. In later rounds, the bee shifted to more difficult words, including some not tied to a specific grade level, leading to more eliminations.
“I would look over the spelling bee list, and if I saw a word I didn’t know how to spell or I didn’t understand, I would go on Google, search the definition, learn how to pronounce the word, and once I figured all that out, I would, like, spell the word out,” Jack said in reference to her preparation for the competition. “And if I would get it wrong, I’d retry until I would get it correct.”
Several of the more challenging words in the competition were identified as having French origins. Barbone said the spelling bee word list included notes indicating when words were derived from French, which made them more difficult for students. Jack also recalled encountering French words while preparing and said those words stood out as especially challenging. One such word mentioned during the competition was unfamiliar even to the organizers, highlighting the increased difficulty of the later rounds.
As the competition progressed, Jack successfully spelled several difficult words. Barbone recalled that in the second round, Jack spelled the word “Cyclopean” correctly, which eliminated the remaining competitors.
During the spelling bee, Jack said she stayed focused by silently spelling words in her head while the other students competed. Toward the final rounds, she said she remained unsure of the outcome, despite the encouragement she received from classmates earlier that day, both on her walk to school and after arriving at school. When Jack realized she had won, she said she felt shocked and did not expect it.
“She had a very big welcome back in her classroom, too,” Barbone said. I was up there to sort of like congratulate her, and all the students in the room were just full of applause, just so happy for her, so very supportive of her in the classroom.”
Reflecting on the experience, Jack said the competition helped her realize she could spell words she initially thought she could not and gave her experience speaking in front of others. Her advice to future spelling bee participants is to continue studying, not give up and not doubt themselves. One word Jack said she will not forget is “weir,” which she learned refers to a fence or enclosure, such as a fishing one.
