CMS spelling champ on the road to S-U-C-C-E-S-S

What began as a typical day for eighth grade student Megan Smith ended with her walking away as a Spelling Bee champion.

“I did it on a whim,” said Smith. “I was with two of my closest friends before class started, and they were talking about entering it and wouldn’t be in class later…and so I decided to do it too. Why not?”

Without studying or preparation, Smith joined over 40 other students at Colony Middle School to participate in the contest. Smith says that they were able to use a whiteboard to help them spell, but still had to recite their words.

Of course, many of the words Smith says she was required to spell were words most of us do not use in everyday language.

“I remember having to spell ‘circumspectly’ and ‘pentameter,’” she recalled, adding that pentameter was her winning word.

The spelling bee is just the latest in a long list for this student. Smith is an accomplished student, maintaining a 4.0 average and is a member of the National Junior Honor Society. She says really loves math and is currently taking Algebra II, a course that 11th grade students take, at Colony High School. “I have to walk over to the high school to take math.” She also takes English II and Biology II.

In addition to taking high school level classes, Smith has won medals in multiple competitions at the Alaska Science Olympiad the past 2 years and is gearing up for this year’s competition in Fairbanks. She was also selected for Honors Alto Saxophone the last two years in the Colony Middle School band. She was invited to Honors Band this year, but it is the same weekend as the Science Olympiad.

If that weren’t enough, the go-getter also completes in Cross Country and 100 meter, 200 meter, and 4x100 meter relays for Track & Field.

The next step for Smith is to take the Scripps online spelling test, and the top 75 spellers from that will have an opportunity to go to the state spelling contest, which will be held in Anchorage in March. From there, the winner goes on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.