On Wednesday, April 16, Mater Gardens Academy held an award ceremony in honor of the students who placed in their classroom spelling bee competitions, as well as the students who moved on to compete against other schools.
The spelling bee competitions begin at the classroom level. Students compete against classmates for first, second and third place. These finalists then move on to compete against other classrooms in their grade level for first, second and third place. For grades 1 through 3, the spelling bee ends here. For students in grades 4 through 8, the grade level finalists compete for the elementary school champion title.
School champions proceed as school representatives in the local spelling bee held by The Miami Herald and Scripps National Spelling Bee. School representatives go up against other local schools for the chance to win first place and represent the State of Florida at Washington's National Spelling Bee.
Mater Garden Academy's champions, Sebastian Valenzuela (5th grade) made it to the top 25 at the local spelling bee and Andres Fernandez (8th grade) made it to the top 10.
Additionally, for the first time this year, Mater Academy hosted a spelling bee for the school champions of the Mater schools. Valenzuela and Fernandez both competed and placed in the top three at the middle school level. They were awarded with trophies and prizes including gift cards and educational advancement prizes sponsored by Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Fernandez said, “In my experience, I learned many new words. It was challenging having to go up against many other top spellers. But most importantly, I had a fun time. I never got nervous because I was so sure about what I knew and won with confidence.”