Don’t try to outspell Amanda Arenella. For three years, other students in the Iredell-Statesville Schools have been trying, and for three years, she has bested them all.
The seventh grader at Mount Mourne School recently captured her third consecutive I-SS District Spelling Bee championship, an event she began dominating in the fifth grade.
“I’ve always done well on spelling tests we had in class and thought why not and ended up really liking it,” Amanda said. “It’s very exciting and overwhelming. Everyone counts on me to spell the words and expected me to win.”
Amanda got her first taste of spelling competition in the fourth grade, but stumbled on the word “although.”
“It always seems to show up somewhere now,” she said jokingly.
Amanda first had to win her school’s competition this winter to advance to the district round. She had been preparing herself for the Bee since November, studying a list of 1,150 words.
Her winning word this year was “thesaurus.” Last year it was “syntax.”
Since there are different levels and age groups participating in the Bee, Amanda said they have to be prepared to answer words from a third to eighth grade level. beginning with basics, then challenge words and finally dictionary words.
In the final stage she said any word from Merriam-Webster can be chosen.
“We also have to know how to spell certain languages so I challenge myself with all the different languages of the words as well,” she said. “We have certain ways to study it and little tricks to learn the words.”
Amanda said the competitors have to learn Latin, German, Spanish words for the Bees, and that German is the hardest. “When the judges are saying the words, it’s hard to pronounce or understand,” she said. “Without help from the internet and hearing it I wouldn’t know how to pronounce it otherwise.”
Students from 26 schools throughout the I-SS competed Feb. 3 at South Iredell High School, where Amanda took first place.
She will now advance to the 72nd Annual Winston-Salem Journal Regional Spelling Bee, on March 18 at the Milton Rhodes Center in Winston-Salem. Her best finish there was in fifth grade, when she was the runnerup.
In Winston-Salem, Amanda will compete against students from two states.
The regional winner will go to Washington, D.C. in late May for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“I really want to win this one because I’m dying to go to DC,” Amanda said. She still has one more year to compete, since the competition caps off in the eighth grade.
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