3rd grader Leila Alobeidy won the annual ACS Spelling Bee for the second year in a row on February 22. Family members, faculty, and fellow students cheered and applauded as Leila and 12 other students from the 1st to 8th grades competed for the top spot. Each of the competitors had advanced to the school-wide Bee by winning classroom spelling bees.
The Bee went 37 rounds before Leila correctly spelled “fascist” and then clinched the victory by correctly spelling the 207th word in the competition — “ligatures.” Leila’s younger brother, 2nd grader Adam Alobeidy, placed second and 8th grader Evan Pearson placed third. The classroom finalists, pictured below, were: (First row, from left): Tamara Kulov (1st); Caleb Norris (1st); Colton Carney (3rd); Adam Alobeidy (2nd); Julian Calloway (4th); Thomas Potenski (4th); (Second row, from left): Gabriella Goodwin (5th); Leila Alobeidy (3rd); Autumn Loo (6th); Ryleigh Martin (7th); Jason Herrera (8th); and Evan Pearson (8th). Not pictured: Victoria Dade (5th).
Due to regional spelling bee regulations that require all participants to be in at least 4th grade, Evan Pearson went on to represent ACS at the South Jersey Regionals Scripps Spelling Bee on March 16 at Petway Elementary School in Vineland. Evan represented ACS well at the regional bee, finishing in the top 10 out of 36 students.
Evan advanced through two hours of competition against students representing public and private schools in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem Counties. In addition to spelling, Evan said the competition included an unexpected two rounds of a vocabulary challenge, where students were asked to define rather than spell various words. Evan advanced through those rounds, but eventually went out misspelling the word “juggernaut,” a word that he said he knows how to spell, but with the pressure mounting unintentionally transposed a “j” and a “g .”
Pictured below as they spelled various words during the bee are: 4th grader Thomas Potenski (left), 8th grader Evan Pearson (center), and 5th grader Victoria Dade (right). Congratulations to all our student competitors. You did a super job.
8th grader Evan Pearson competes in the ACS Bee and went on to compete in the Scripps Regional Bee. 
Event Coordinator and Spelling Club Advisor Jessica Martin with Bee first place winner 3rd grader Leila Alobeidy.
