Cupertino hosted its fifth annual spelling bee on Saturday, Jan. 20, in Cupertino City Hall. The spelling bee was split into the second and third grade competition from 1 to 3 p.m. and the fourth and fifth grade competition from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Representatives from the Youth Activity Board and the Teen Commission made a combined effort to organize, host, market and judge the event.
The spelling bee was organized into a series of rounds in which contestants were assigned a word to spell. If spelled correctly, the student passed to the next round and if not, the student would return to their family. When two contestants remained, they engaged in the Spell-off. One of the contestants would be given a word, and if it was spelt incorrectly, the other contestant could win by spelling that word and an additional word correctly.
The winner of the second-third grade spelling bee, Skanda Sadeesh, won by correctly spelling the word “goldfish.” After the event was finished, Sadeesh was awarded a medal, a toy set and a certificate. All other contestants were also awarded medals and certificates for their participation. Sadeesh explains how, although he was initially nervous, he was confident in his abilities.
“When my mom told me about this opportunity, I knew I was determined to go for it,” Sadeesh said. “Today was the day where I was really nervous. I was trembling, but when I realized that it was actually pretty easy words, I got a bit confident.”
Moderator of the spelling bee and Teen Commission member Rayna Shah noted how YAB and the Cupertino Parks and Recreation Department made a strong effort to market the event to the younger population. She hopes that events with the same target audience will continue to grow.
“This is one of the few events we have that have such young kid interaction for educational purposes,” Shah said. “So I think we could definitely add more, like maybe a math version of this or something else, to just show kids that it’s fun to learn.”
