Intermediate school spelling champ crowned

Photo courtesy of Garden Grove Unified School
District

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. ― Nancy
Nguyen of Alamitos Intermediate School earned the title of champion of the 25^th
Annual Spelling Bee for seventh and eighth-grade students in the Garden Grove
Unified School District.

Nancy, a 13-year-old
eighth-grader, correctly spelled the deciding word ― oregano ― to become the top speller among more than 7,400
intermediate-school pupils in the GGUSD. The bee winner, a Garden Grove
resident, is a straight-A student who says English is her favorite subject. She
was runner-up in the 2011 district spelling bee.

English teachers Monique
Becerra, Debra Thomson and Deanne Westlake served as coaches for the four
spelling bee contestants from Alamitos Intermediate.

In this latest district
competition, Nancy dueled for first place with Arthur Tran of Fitz
Intermediate, who finished second. Both were followed by Phuong Tran of
McGarvin Intermediate, third place; and Andrew Phan of Lake Intermediate,
fourth place. Other honored participants included Tommy Nguyen of McGarvin
Intermediate, fifth place; Charlie Nguyen of Bell Intermediate, sixth place;
Chris Tran of Fitz Intermediate, seventh place; Sabah Ismail of Jordan
Intermediate, eighth-place; Milla Bach of Jordan Intermediate, ninth place; and
Michael Truong of Ralston Intermediate, 10^th place.

The district champion
and the nine runners-up will represent the district at the Orange County
Spelling Competition, with the written segment scheduled Feb. 27, followed by
the deciding oral spelling round on March 3.

Each of the district’s
10 intermediate schools entered its four best spellers in the district
competition. Contestants were asked to spell such words as bombastic, curmudgeon and quesadilla.

Board of Education Vice-President Bao Nguyen and Trustee
Lan Quoc Nguyen presented trophies to the top 10 spellers, and all contest
entrants received certificates of participation.