Brookhaven Student Lands In GA Spelling Bee Finalists

BROOKHAVEN, GA — A Brookhaven 12-year-old ranked No. 19 in Georgia's 2021 State Spelling Bee with 27 out of 50 possible points.

Rex Nassah of Marist School in Brookhaven — a private Catholic school — finished 19th in the state's spelling bee, beating out a Crawford County Schools student. Nassah tripped up on the word "naboom." (According to Merriam-Webster, naboom is an Afrikaans word for "a small tree of dry, open parts of South Africa that has erect, four-angled branches which form a broad head, suggesting a candelabra.")

Ananya Augustine of Eagle's Landing Middle School in McDonough won the spell-off, held Friday via Zoom.

The 20 Georgia finalists who participated ranged from 9 to 14 years old and were from all parts of the state. All of them took a 30-minute timed test Friday morning that consisted of 25 vocabulary and 25 spelling questions.

"[The Georgia Association of Educators] applauds not only our 20 finalists, runner-up, and state champion, but all of our students across the state who despite the challenges of this difficult past year, still made time to participate in their school, district, and region bees," GAE President Lisa Morgan said. "We extend our congratulations to every one of them."

Two DeKalb County students were also among the 20 Georgia finalists: Sanjeda Jamal of Huntley Hills Elementary School in Chamblee, and Christian Wilson of The Champion School in Stone Mountain. Jamal tied for third place, while Wilson tied for eighth place.

"We admire the perseverance of our spellers, their families, teachers and schools for making it through the challenges presented by COVID-19. Making it to the state championship this year has a bit of extra special meaning," Morgan said. "We only hope we are in a position for the 2022 cycle to return to the familiar format we all enjoy."

The winners of the Georgia spelling bee — Ananya Augustine of Henry County Schools and Long Nguyen of Gwinnett County Schools— will take part in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will also be virtual until it is whittled down to 10 to 12 students. The finalists will then travel to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, for in-person competition on July 8.

Visit the Scripps National Spelling Bee website for more information.