More than Two Dozen Students to Compete in 32nd Annual Anne Arundel County Spelling Bee

Arundel Arundel School officials today announced the details of the 32nd Annual Spelling Bee where 30 students will compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. 

Twenty public school students and 10 private school students will vie to become the champion of the 32nd annual Anne Arundel County Spelling Bee on February 29, 2020.  The event at 10 a.m. in the Board Room of the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.

The county bee is presented by the Anne Arundel County Public Schools Office of Secondary Reading, English, & Integrated Literacy.  This year’s presenting sponsor is Development Facilitators, Inc. (DFI).  The event sponsors are Educational Systems Federal Credit Union, BGE, Comcast, DALY Computers, and M&T Bank. The champion sponsors for this year are American College of Education, Buffalo Wild Wings, and NTA.

The champion of the county bee wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.  There will be other prizes for the county’s top spellers, including monetary awards from Educational Systems Federal Credit Union as well as reference books and gift items from Merriam Webster, Medieval Times, Bowie Baysox, Southwest Airlines, Glen Burnie Regional Library, Chick-Fil-A of Annapolis, and Wegmans  of Crofton.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a not-for-profit educational promotion sponsored by The E.W. Scripps Company in conjunction with businesses and community organizations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: private, charter, parochial, public, and home schools.

Participants in this year’s bee, listed in order of the school they represent, are:

Annapolis Middle School: Araaf Zahid

Arundel Middle School: Avery Thomas

Brooklyn Park Middle School: Nicholas Lai

Central Middle School: Owen Hurson

Chesapeake Bay Middle School: Sherry Nester

Chesapeake Science Point: Ayesha Shareef

Corkran Middle School: Rowan McCrary

Crofton Middle School: Vibu Puvvala

George Fox Middle School: Gabriel Samayoa

Indian Creek School: Ha Vi Albert

Key School: Vivien Kaplan

Lindale Middle School: Eniola Awosika

Macarthur Middle School: Nakiera Bea

Magothy River Middle School: Mauricio Palmar

Marley Middle School: Cody Smith

Meade Middle School: Malachi Rider

Monsignor Slade Catholic School: Ethan Rizzutti

Old Mill Middle School North: Mara Babb

Old Mill Middle School South: Akeelah Jones

School of the Incarnation: Ashley Miller

Severn River Middle School: Lucas Brown

Severn School: Emily Sutton

Severna Park Middle School: Ben Campion

Southern Middle School: Linda Johnson

St. Andrew’s United Methodist Day School: Olivia Hurd

St. Anne’s School of Annapolis: Alexis Parrott

St. John The Evangelist School: Christian (CJ) West

St. Martin’s Lutheran School: Maggie Porciello

St. Mary’s Elementary School: Amelia Atkins

Wiley H. Bates Middle School: Jeannette Manseau