On Friday, December 6, 2024, Lowellville Schools had its Annual Spelling Bee. There are two rounds in the Spelling Bee, 3rd-5th grade students compete with each other, and 6th-8th grade students compete with each other. The winners of the Spelling Bee have the opportunity to compete against students from other schools at Youngstown State, with the winner of YSU’s Spelling Bee participating in Nationals in Washington. Winners of the Spelling Bee were 8th grader Steven Yon and 5th grader Emma Ogle.
Steven Yon won the Spelling Bee before in 6th grade and is very excited to return to Stambaugh Auditorium to compete against other winners of Spelling Bees around the county. The last time he went in 6th grade, he made it through the 2nd round at the YSU Spelling Bee His goal is to do better than he did in 6th grade and possibly win the competition. I asked Steven what ways you prepared for the Spelling Bee. He said, “Mrs. DeLuca had us come down and study our words during study hall because she is an amazing teacher and cares a lot about us and our endeavors.”
One thing Steven is worried about is all of the eyes that will be watching him while he is on the stage. Steve has mixed thoughts about the possibility of winning the YSU Spelling Bee. “It would be nice to win the YSU spelling contest but I don’t want to go farther and be aired nationally because I feel like other people worked harder and earned it more than me.” Steven won on the word cohort.
Emma is in 5th grade and it is her first year winning the Spelling Bee. She said, “Mrs. Havrilla gave me a list and I studied a couple of the words every night. My mom quizzes me on each word.” She plans on asking her mom to help her practice to prepare for YSU. Like Steven, Emma is also nervous about all the eyes that will be on her while she is on stage at Stambaugh Auditorium for the YSU Spelling Bee. Emma’s winning word was reunion. Mrs. Havrilla is a 6th and 5th grade English teacher and helped run the Spelling Bee. She helped her students prepare for the Spelling Bee by, “… giving them the study lists a few weeks before the spelling bee and they had time during the study halls to work and quiz with each other.”
