Saturday, February 25, 2012
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
The Vindicator’s 79th Regional Spelling Bee on March 17 includes one competitor who’s already participated in the bee four times.
Megan Winters, 13, an eighth-grader at West Branch Middle School, will be competing in her fifth Vindicator Bee. Last year, she came in third, her best finish thus far.
The regional bee in the Chestnut Room at Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University is a qualifier for the Scripps event in May in Washington, D.C.
Megan, a daughter of Mary and Ed Winters of North Benton, doesn’t have any study tricks she’s using to prepare for the upcoming contest.
“I’m just going to continue to study the list that I have and work from there,” she said.
Megan pays special attention to word origins to get clues to a word’s spelling.
“I love French words — those are probably my favorite — and like Spanish words,” she said. “The words just sound fun to me.”
Rendezvous is her favorite word.
When she’s not competing in spelling bees, Megan participates in Power of the Pen, her school’s jazz band, volleyball, the English Festival and her church youth group. She also enjoys baking and anything to do with baking.
Her mother helps her study and practice for the annual bees.
“I study the language, she quizzes me on the different words and we learn the pronunciation together,” Megan said.
She isn’t sure how her classmates view her when time for the school’s bee comes around. She doesn’t know if they’re intimidated by her spelling prowess. This year, she won her school’s bee by correctly spelling militant.
Regardless of how she fares at the regional event, this will be Megan’s last appearance there. Because the contest is limited to elementary and middle-school students, this will mark her last bee.
Being a return competitor puts Megan somewhat at ease compared to her initial bee appearance.
“The first year, I didn’t know what to expect. By the third year, I knew what kind of words and now know what to expect,” Megan said.