Schools
Middle Schooler Wins Spelling Bee In Anne Arundel, Advances To National Competition
A middle schooler won the spelling bee in Anne Arundel County. She outlasted 27 other spellers and advanced to the national competition.
![Macarthur Middle School student Bella Van on Saturday won the 35th annual Anne Arundel County Spelling Bee. A sign outside the Anne Arundel County Public Schools headquarters is pictured above.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/24287450/20230316/010932/styles/patch_image/public/img-3344___16123258327.jpg)
March 13, 2023
Bella Van of Macarthur Middle School outlasted 27 other school level spellers Saturday to capture the title at the 35th annual Anne Arundel County Spelling Bee.
Find out what's happening in Odenton-Severnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Bella correctly spelled the word “obloquy,” which means “strongly condemnatory utterance,” in the 13th round to win the AACPS Spelling Bee championship. Briant Patterson of Crofton Middle School finished second and Ethan Jenkins of Monsignor Slade Catholic School was third.
Bella is the second consecutive MacArthur student to win the bee. Sélah Sutton took the title last year.
Find out what's happening in Odenton-Severnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The bee is presented annually by the Anne Arundel County Public Schools Office of Secondary Reading, English, & Integrated Literacy. This year’s presenting sponsors were Development Facilitators, Inc. (DFI) and Educational Systems Federal Credit Union. Event co-sponsors were Comcast, DALY Computers, M&T Bank, and Horace Mann. The champion sponsors for this year were American College of Education, Care First, National Teacher Association, Ricoh, and Whiting Turner.
Bella will represent Anne Arundel County in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.
Also competing in this year’s AACPS Countywide Spelling Bee were:
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a not-for-profit educational promotion sponsored by The E.W. Scripps Company in conjunction with businesses and community organizations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: private, charter, parochial, public, and home schools. On behalf of Co-Coordinators Autumn Baltimore and Sarah Rippeon, they congratulate all of the spellers and their families.
This press release was produced by Anne Arundel County Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.