9 Michigan Students Looking To Win National Spelling Bee Title

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is in its 100th year of service and will be having the 97th contest this year. This is the largest spelling bee in the entire country and is something that many students dream of winning. Spelling can be difficult for many of us, and spell-check saves our lives, but spelling comes naturally to these young bright minds.

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The national contest starts at the local level with school, district, and regional championships. The winner of these championships gets an opportunity to fight for the crown in Washington, D.C. They must spell their way through the semi-finals to in the finals to win but they may have to win a spell-off first.

The initial rounds are vocabulary rounds where the contestants will have to pick the correct multiple-choice answer based on the definition of the word, but the ending will still be a free-for-all spelling contest. This year's contest starts on Tuesday May 27 with preliminaries, the quarterfinals and Semis on Wednesday, and lastly, the finals on Thursday which the semis and finals will be streamed on Ion.

9 Michigan Students Competing In Scripps National Spelling Bee

This year, there are 9 contestants from Michigan who will all be looking to become only the second winner ever from the state of Michigan. The first and only winner was Louis Edward Sissman from Detroit in 1941 at the 17th edition. Since there, several Michigan students have come up short of raising the spelling bee trophy.

These are the 9 Michigan students that are competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and where they attend school:

• • Divya Choudhary, age 11, grade 6, Canton Charter Academy. Sponsored by WXYZ Channel 7, Detroit.
  • Elliott Covelle, age 14, grade 8, Northern Hills Middle School. Sponsored by Kent Intermediate School District, Grand Rapids.
  • Minna Danziger, age 12, grade 6, Leland Public School. Sponsored by Traverse City Record-Eagle, Traverse City.
  • Ishika Dirisala, age 12, grade 6, Upton Middle School. Sponsored by The Herald-Palladium, St. Joseph.
  • Ainsley Gastmeier, age 14, grade 8, Trinity Lutheran School. Sponsored by Macomb Intermediate School District, Clinton Township.
  • Josiah Loehrke, age 11 grade 5, El Sol Dual Language School. Sponsored by Kalamazoo Experiential Learning Center, Kalamazoo.
  • Sanvi Mandvekar, age 13, grade 8, Larson Middle School. Sponsored by Oakland Schools Education Foundation, Waterford.
  • Zander Myers, age 11, grade 5, Murphy Elementary School. Sponsored by The County Press, Lapeer.
  • Eliza Schwass, age 14, grade 8, Oliver J. Dejonge Middle School. Sponsored by West Shore Educational Service District, Ludington.

Southwest Michigan has not only one but two opportunities to be the home of the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion as there is student from Kalamazoo and St Joseph that in the competition.