Submitted article
Two Galion City School District students will take their spelling talents on the road. Seventh grader Caleb Strack and fifth grader Regin Kuehlman will be two of 51 students competing in the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee at Ohio University March 14 at 10 a.m.
Qualifying for this event has been a long process. First, both students competed in the district-wide spelling bee. Caleb was the overall district winner and qualified to take the online test while Regin qualified to take the test as the Intermediate School winner.
“The online test Caleb and Regin completed successfully was administered in mid-February,” Gifted Coordinator Leanna Giesige said. “The test consisted of 50 questions, and students had to score at least a 29 to qualify for the Regional Spelling Bee.”
Both students represented Galion in the Crawford County Spelling Bee in February. Regin finished in fifth place, and has been working hard to prepare for this event.
“I have spent a lot of time studying my spelling words,” she said. “My mom has been helping me to study, and she is really excited for me.”
Caleb finished in sixth place in the county event and has been utilizing technology to help him prepare for the competition in Athens.
“I went on the SpellingCity website, typed all the words in the packet on the list, and then I go through each of the lists, and the words I don’t know, I write down three times each on a piece of notebook paper,” he said. “A few other students have helped me study, but I’ve done most of the studying on my own and through a study program at Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center.”
Susie Cooper, another gifted coordinator with Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center has organized a study group for all of the students that meets once a week to study together. During the study session, Cooper helps prepare the competitors with extra tips, language origin study tips, past words as well as quizzing them on the words they are studying in the packet that was provided for them from Scripps.
This regional contest is part of the Scripps National Spelling Bee program. One student will qualify for the national competition in Washington, DC, a fact that’s not lost on both Regin and Caleb.
“I never thought I would make it this far,” Regin said. “What excites me the most is that if I perform well in Athens, I might have a chance to go to the next level.”
“I’d be really nervous about going to the National Spelling Bee because it would be a big accomplishment,” Caleb said. “It would be awesome if I made it, but I still have a lot of studying to do.”
“We are very proud of Caleb and Regin for what they have accomplished to this point,” Superintendent Mark Stefanik said. “We know Caleb and Regin will do very well in Athens, and wish them nothing but success as they compete and represent our school district.”
For more information about the spelling bee competitions in the Galion City School District, contact Leanna Giesige at giesige.leanna@moesc.net