On March 13th, Liberty Middle School eighth-grader Vishva Bharath made history by winning the Regional Spelling Bee. This competition takes place for students to qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This took place at the Laporte Civic Auditorium, with 20 students that competed. This is a huge achievement and makes Bharath the first ever student from Porter County to win the Regional Spelling Bee, and advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., which will take place at the end of May.
“I am super excited that Vishva Bharath has done so well this year with the Scripps Spelling Bee! He competed in the LMS School Bee in December and Vishva was our school champion. In February, Vishva participated in a Virtual Scripps Bee to be eligible for the Regional Bee. He spelled every word correctly and was notified that the Regional Spelling Bee was to be in person at the LaPorte Civic Auditorium,” LMS English Teacher Tina Clindaniel stated.
This spelling bee consisted of ten rounds, in which Bharath spelled every word correctly and ended up winning the competition with the word “theorem.” Throughout the competition, Bharath was challenged with spelling the following words: “broil,” “headlong,” “buffet,” “fellowship,” “assumption,” “stipulate,” “gambit,” “pastrami,” “acupuncture,” and “theorem.” Consequently, Bharath will be traveling to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Championship while his parents cheer him on.
“He studies from a list of 4,000 words and rides his scooter around the house while his mom calls out words for him to spell. Vishva told me at the Regional Bee that his mom is his favorite study partner…Vishva is intrinsically motivated to learn and succeed. I am blessed to have him as a student and wish him the best of luck at the end of May,” LMS English Teacher Tina Clindaniel stated.
Congratulations to Vishva Bharath for being the first student from Porter County to win the Regional Spelling Bee!
