Carson City student advances to Scripps National spelling bee

Arabella Mendoza, a sixth grader from Bethlehem Lutheran School in Carson City, is the champion of the Nevada State regional spelling bee.

Her winning word was “adjucate,” meaning the mathematical transpose of a matrix in which each element is replaced by its cofactor. The competition involved 35 fifth through eighth grade spellers from across Nevada and lasted 11 rounds.

Spellers competed at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas on March 23. Kendall Tenney from 10E Media served as pronouncer for the competition.

Spellers studied “Words of the Champions,” the 4,000-word list provided by the Scripps National Spelling Bee, to prepare for the competition.

Mendoza, along with Bella-Clair Nguyen of St. Francis de Salles school in Las Vegas, will advance to compete in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee this summer near Washington, D.C.

In addition to qualifying for the national competition, Mendoza and Nguyen also win the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, in addition to one-year subscriptions for Britannica Online Premium, Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, Epic Family, and Tynker.

The competition encourages the exploration of words and lifelong curiosity, with a focus on helping students set goals and dedicate time to study and prepare. The Scripps National Spelling Bee provides the list of words for the regional competition.

For information, visit www.spellingbee.com.