Controversy, dissolution, manslaughter, lacrosse and ostentation were just a few of the words spelled correctly by students participating in the International Schools Group (ISG) Spelling Bee sponsored by Arab News. In a time when many adults wouldn’t consider composing correspondence without assistance from their computer’s spelling checker, hundreds of fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade ISG students took on the challenge to defeat the dictionary. The eight top spellers met at the Dhahran Elementary/Middle School (DEMS) for a final contest to see who would represent ISG in the 77th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held in Washington, D.C. June 1-3, 2004.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the USA’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by the E.W. Scripps Company and 243 sponsors. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community, usually with the cooperation of area school officials. The champion of the sponsor’s final spelling bee advances to the finals in Washington, D.C. Sponsorship is available to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. This year Arab News is proud to be one of the Spelling Bee sponsors.
According to the organizers, the purpose of the Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. The program is open to students who have not passed beyond the eighth grade at the time of their school finals. Over 10 million students globally will participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee Program in 2004.
The “Louisville Courier-Journal” started the spelling bee with nine contestants in 1925. In 1941 Scripps Howard assumed sponsorship of the program. There was no Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee during the World War II years of 1943, 1944 and 1945. Co-champions were declared in 1950, 1957 and 1962. Of the 79 spelling bee champions, 42 were girls and 37 were boys.
Before the spelling bee final began in Dhahran, DEMS Principal Bruce Hudson congratulated all the participants and emphasized that each of the students was already a winner at their schools. He thanked them for taking the time and having the interest to invest in an academic pursuit such as the spelling bee.
Then the students took the stage. It was obvious that nerves as well as ability would play important roles in the spelling bee. The rules were simple. Each student approached the microphone, was verbally presented with a word and then tried to spell the word correctly. The student could obtain clarification and/or stall for time by requesting that the word be repeated, that the origin of the word be described, that its grammatical genre be given, that it be defined and that the word be used in a sentence. In the end though, the student must spell the word correctly to advance in the competition.
Eight grader Safeer Ziauddin representing ISG-Baqaiq was the first to fall, misspelling the word “fancily.” Then sixth grader Tiffany Mae Belardo from ISG-Baqaiq was next down on the word “felony.” Sixth grader Mahrouz Choudhary from DEMS was out on the word “deployment.” “Handicap” debilitated eighth grader Roa El-Tagy from ISG-Dammam. Safwan Siddiqui in the sixth grade at Jubail American School was unable to concentrate on “mantra.” Paulo Espanola from the eighth grade at ISG-Dammam will never forget that it was “dissolution” that did him in.
So finally there were just two spellers left and the tension increased enormously. Eighth grader Amna Farooq from Jubail American School misspelled “septic.” To win the ISG spelling bee, eighth grader Umer Vohra from DEMS correctly spelled septic and then correctly spelled his own word — audition. At that point, members of the audience, who had been too anxious to even breathe, burst into sustained applause.
Nisar Vohra was delighted that his son Umer had won the competition.
“Contests such as the ISG spelling bee are excellent,” Vohra said. “The spelling bee has helped my son learn more about words and language. He was enthusiastic to participate and now he will reap the rewards of his effort thus far. But I know there is still a lot of work ahead for him to win in the USA. We will encourage him and I am sure his teachers will help too, but the effort will be mostly his.”
