2011 Scripps Regional Spelling Bee

The Fourth Presbyterian School hosted the third annual Scripps Regional Spelling Bee for Montgomery County on Saturday, March 5, 2011.  The bee is sponsored by The Meakem Group of Wells Fargo and was held at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland.  

Thirty-four Montgomery County public and private schools were represented this year.  After ten rounds, it was narrowed down to two students:  Marina Stumpf, an eighth grader from Grace Episcopal Day School, and Susanna Yau, a seventh grader from Fourth Presbyterian School.  The two middle school girls then continued for several more rounds without faltering, but then, in the 17th round, Marina misspelled “neophyte.”  Susanna correctly spelled “Rubicon” to win the round and then clinched the title with the championship word “ineluctable.”

Susanna will now go on to compete in the 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. on June 1, along with hundreds of other elementary and middle school students from across the United States.  The winner of the National Bee receives a $30,000 cash prize and an engraved loving cup trophy from Scripps, a $2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $3,800 in reference works from Encyclopædia Britannica, and a $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation.