Henrique Machado, a 6th grader who in third grade was taking algebra classes, successfully bested a field of fifteen competitors as he captured the crown of Spelling Bee Champ at this year’s K12 International Academy Spelling Bee competition.
The winning word: matriculation. The number rounds completed? More than 6. And the size of the audience? Unbelievably large, and possibly the best attended school event all year. Nearly 50 people were there to cheer on the contestants as they stood up to test their spelling moxie against their fellow peers, breaths held.
“I remember Henrique. He was quite the student when I had him for algebra,” said Mr. Richard Mistretta, Machado’s former algebra teacher. “He would come to study halls to make sure he solved all of the challenge problems correctly. Really great kid, and a great student too.”
While the participants spelled out almost 50 words, many more remained in reserve. “Chimera is one of my favorite spelling bee words, but we didn’t get to it this year,” said Mr. Bruce Field, 8th Grade English teacher.
The good news is that there is always next year. All full-time students interested in competing next year are encouraged to study starting now to get ready for the annual event happening about this time of year in the spring of 2017.
Well done, Henrique!
