Barnard Student Places in Regional Spelling Bee

If you build it, they will Spell….

Fifth grade Barnard student Aryan Khedkar loves words. He was an early reader, and since becoming a student at Barnard Elementary School, has fueled his passion for words by entering spelling contests.

“I had heard about Spelling Bee contests, and thought it would be fun to see how my skills measured up against other students my age,” Khedkar said, who began practicing with lists of words as a Kindergartener, and in the 3rd grade made it to the North South Foundation Nationals competition and placed 11th.

Aryan’s mom encouraged his “hobby,” and when she saw how engaged he was, she thought other students may benefit from a spelling bee program. She pitched the idea to Barnard Principal Mrs. Morey, who turned the plan over to 4th grade teacher Mrs. Coffer, to see if it was something they could bring to Barnard on a school-wide level. “Mrs. Khedkar was instrumental to getting our program off the ground,” said Coffer. “She introduced the kids to the spelling bee process and worked with them once a week to practice spelling words.”

The program was tremendously popular, and the staff at Barnard quickly realized they had a real hit on their hands. And they needed a village to make it happen. “We recruited high school students from Athens’ National Honor Society to be pronouncers, judges, platform managers and record keepers,” and hosted their first Barnard Spelling Bee live over Facebook. 40 students signed up, and the event lasted over 4 hours, as they narrowed down the list of competitors.

The Barnard Bee was good practice for the upcoming Scripps Regional Spelling Bee. And practice they did. They pulled words from previous contests, used study guides and online lists, and tried to get a feel for word origins and definitions that would help. “Many English words conform to a common standard, but many also don’t,” said Aryan. The most difficult word he had to spell this year was Lacertilian, which means ‘pertaining to a lizard.’ “The most interesting word I had was Gyttja, which means ‘related to rocks.’”

Aryan placed 2nd in the Regional 1 At Large Scripps Spelling Bee on March 13. In round 18, Aryan missed on word “ELHI” which he spelled as “ELHIGH” (word which is related to elementary and high school education). The last six rounds were head-to-head between Aryan and the final winner. Even the Scripps coordinators were impressed with the intense competition. “I enjoy competing at a higher level,” concluded Aryan, “But the other kids are really smart, and words aren’t as easy as you’d think they are.”

He's in good company. And it is safe to say that now that Barnard students have tasted spelling bee victory, they will be eyeing the Scripps contest early next year, especially with Oakland County Schools on board as their regional sponsor. “Aryan brought us the Spelling Bee, and next year will compete as a Baker middle school student,” said Coffer. “He’ll be one to watch!”