Rather than revert to old models of competition, organizers can instead look to other ways the pandemic has forced innovations that could, if adapted, transform the Bee to be more inclusive and accessible.

How is the wealth gap being affected by the pandemic? With more spellers paying to attend than being sponsored, the contest was already skewing heavily toward families able to pay their own way. Socioeconomic concerns have come to the fore in recent years of this contest, regarding who is able to afford the contest and the preparation to get themselves there. To benefit more of America’s children, the National Spelling Bee should focus on greater access and inclusion for socioeconomically disadvantaged and racially minoritized kids. More broadly, the prospective participants in the Bee now confront a world remade by massive social changes wrought by the pandemic, not least the socioeconomic and racial inequalities it has exacerbated, which surely will widen already evident economic and social gaps in this contest. Early rounds were conducted remotely, and the number of contestants is greatly reduced.

For the 11 finalists, however, much has changed. It was the first time a spell-off decided the prestigious competition, which began in 1925.This year’s finals may seem like a return to normal, albeit with the additional excitement of first lady Dr. Last year, Harini Logan, 14, from San Antonio, Texas, correctly spelled 22 words during a 90-second spell-off to claim the top prize. The excitement is heightened by TV commentators who describe the action as contestants rack their brains to come up with the correct spellings for often obscure words. This year’s total field comprised 94 girls, 134 boys and two spellers who identify as nonbinary. His father, Deval, a software engineer, immigrated to the United States from India 29 years ago to get his master’s degree in electrical engineering. Shah is the 22nd champion in the past 24 years with South Asian heritage. “I think the thing that distinguishes the very best spellers from the ones that end up not really leaving their mark is actually just grit.” “He appreciated that this is a journey, which sounds very trite but is really quite true,” said Shah’s coach, Scott Remer, a former speller and study guide author. There were 231 competitors in the 2023 US National Spelling Bee held at National Harbour, Maryland He was among 11 contestants, aged 11 to 14, who advanced to the finals of this year’s event after beating out a field of 220 other competitors participating in the three-day contest, held in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. Shah, whose hobbies include reading, tennis, playing the cello and solving math problems, tied for 51st place in the 2019 edition of the spelling bee, and tied for 76th place in 2021. When he decided to try again, he added an exercise routine to help sharpen his focus and lost about 15 pounds, she said. “It took me four months to get him back on track because he was quite a bit disturbed and he didn’t want to do it,” said Shah’s mother, Nilam Shah. He spent a miserable five hours spelling outdoors in chilly, windy, damp conditions at a supersize regional competition, only to fall short of returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Then came the disaster of last year, when he was forced to compete in the Orlando region because his previous regional sponsor did not come back after the pandemic. The 2020 bee was cancelled because of COVID-19, and in the mostly virtual 2021 bee, he did not make it to the in-person finals, held in his home state on ESPN’s campus at Walt Disney World. Shah had first competed at the national bee in 2019, then had his spelling career interrupted. Dev Shah smiles after spelling his word right as he competes in the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in National Harbor, Maryland The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the official dictionary of the competition. Shah, who was crowned champion in a hail of confetti before being joined on stage by his parents and other relatives, takes home $50,000 cash from EW Scripps Co, the bee’s sponsor, plus further monetary prizes and reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster. Shah, a student at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, had correctly, and swiftly, spelled “bathypitotmeter” in the 14th round, but under spelling bee rules needed to land one more word to be declared winner. Keep reading list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Proposal for taxpayer-funded religious charter school fails in US list 2 of 3 Tens of thousands of US education workers launch strike list 3 of 3 US education: The endless burden of deliberate ignorance end of list

National spelling bee words 2021