Junior Grace Kenny won Huntington High School’s tenth annual spelling bee following a spirited battle with juniors Carolina Moreira Ibarra and Gabe Moscovitch.
Ms. Kenny captured first place after correctly spelling the word “clairvoyant.” Huntington English teachers and National Honor Society co-faculty advisors Aimee Antorino Helen Guarino and Chairperson of Humanities Joseph Leavy served as the competition’s judges. Senior Christopher Mavrogian was the master of ceremonies. English teacher Michael Schwendemann was the master of ceremonies.
The spelling bee finals played out over three periods on Valentine’s Day. The competition was closely contested extending to within minutes of the final bell. The NEHS officers chose the words posed to contestants and created the sentences used in the competition itself. Students were allowed to attend the event during their free periods or lunch periods or if their respective teacher brought them down to the auditorium.
The officers of Huntington’s Post Ellipsis chapter of the National English Honor Society spent weeks planning this year’s event. A preliminary spelling test was administered in English classes with the top scorers advancing to the finals in the auditorium.
Ms. Kenny is a student in teacher Victoria Geier’s Advanced Placement English Language and Composition class. Dozens of students qualified for this year’s spelling bee contest finals.
Huntington’s National English Honor Society chapter has a membership of 138. The organization is led Zubair Ali (president), Madelyn Kye (vice president), Natalie Ciccone (vice president of communications), Cat Jamison (co-vice president of finance), Ethan Mulroy (co-vice president of finance), Rebecca Hoffmann (finance coordinator) and Kate Sheran (public relations coordinator).
To be considered for NEHS membership a student must have a minimum academic grade average of 90, “exhibiting an impressive breadth of academic excellence,” while maintaining an English grade of at least 94. Candidates must submit an essay and two letters of recommendations from faculty members.
Oh, and by the way, the dictionary defines the word “clairvoyant” as a noun or adjective used to describe “a person who claims to have a supernatural ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact” or someone “having or exhibiting an ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact.”
