Shawnee's Balogun best at bee
Mar. 14—LIMA — The 96th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee will be held Memorial Day week in Washington D.C. Opemipo Balogun, a seventh-grade student at Shawnee Middle School will be a participant.
Daniel Fullenkamp and Balogun competed for four rounds as the final two contestants. Fullenkamp then misspelled "simpatico," using a "y" instead of an "i." Balogun spelled "fatuously" to win the competition.
Balogun gave advice for students who want to be good spellers. "You should try and if you work hard you'll get good." She put in 30 minutes a day studying a word list to improve her chances of winning.
The final four contestants all misspelled a word in the same round so they were all given a second life in the competition. Eventually the competition was whittled down to the two final spellers, Balogun and Fullenkamp, a sixth-grade student from St. Henry.
The first official round began at 5:24 p.m. The word "bubbly" started the competition. The first word missed was "nervily." Some first round words were dependent on the definition. Was the word Sunday or sundae? When the definition included ice cream it was easy to ascertain the correct word and spell it correctly. The competition ended at 6:44 p.m., an hour and twenty minutes after it began with 30 contestants from around the area.
According to the Scripps National Spelling Bee website, the origin of the spelling bee is not entirely clear, but it is believed to have originated in the United States in the early 19th century. The earliest known record of a spelling bee was in 1825, when a schoolteacher named John D. Philbrick organized a spelling competition in Boston.
Spelling bees became increasingly popular throughout the 19th century, particularly in schools, where they were used as a way to promote literacy and encourage competition among students. Spelling bees remain a popular tradition today in schools and communities throughout the United States and in other parts of the world.
Reach Dean Brown at 567-242-0409
