By Mary Windsor

As the lights dimmed and voices hushed to a tense silence in the Paramount Theater, 34 students representing Alamance-Burlington schools sat in anticipation to begin the 22^nd Annual Times-News Spelling Bee for a chance to compete in the Scripp’s National Spelling Bee held in Washington, D.C. from May 24 to 29.

The audience was filled with teachers, parents, grandparents and friends, all gathered to support and encourage the spellers on stage that had made their way through their respective middle schools to this set of finals. The spellers not only had to spell words correctly, but also identify their meanings in the vocabulary rounds.

The two vocabulary rounds during this event were just added this year to prepare the students as the Scripp’s National Spelling Bee for the definition round they have in their competition. The students were given a word and two choices as to what the word could mean.

While some were nervous and tentative when walking up to the mic, others were confident in their abilities. A recorder was set up beside the judges in case they were unable to make out or understand the students first spelling, they could replay a sound clip.

Students were given three weeks and a list of words provided by the Scripp’s Howard Foundation that could potentially be asked of them during the spelling bee. The words came with the etymology and definition. Joylyn Newlin, who came in fourth place, said she would mark all the words she already knew and practice new words every single day until the day of the competition. When asked if she was nervous she said, “Not really. I tried not to be, last time I was and it really caused me to mess up a word that I knew the spelling to, so I tried to be more relaxed today.”

The winner of the overall spelling bee was Michael Steed, an eight-grader from Turrentine Middle School. His brother won two years ago. Steed won an expense paid trip to Washington with a chaperone, a $100 savings bond, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, and a Spelling Bee Champion plaque, courtesy of Times-News.

“I took my brothers advice and really focused on the etymology when I studied for the spelling bee,” he said after the competition, “I would study for about 20 minutes every day.” His brother was there to give him a congratulatory hug after he had been given all of his prizes and the students were able to exit the stage.

All of the ticket proceeds of the competition benefit and go towards the Newspaper in Education literacy program where print and electronic newspapers are provided to local students.