Raya Walter,
shown with language arts teacher Josie Schave, has advanced to three-county
spelling competition next month. A
seventh-grader from the Spanish Immersion School will represent Mansfield City
Schools in the Tri-County Spelling Bee Feb. 13 at the Mid-Ohio Educational
Service Center.
Raya Walter
qualified by finishing among the top 12 at the Richland County Spelling Bee on
Jan. 16. Fifty-four students competed in the county bee.
“I like spelling but I never thought I was really good at it,” Raya said.
Josie
Schave, her language arts teacher, said Raya is too modest.
“Raya is an incredible speller,” Schave said. “When we do word exercises she always chooses the challenge words, the difficult ones. Raya is an excellent student and an excellent person.”
At the Tri-County Spelling Bee next month, Raya will compete against students from Lexington, St. Peter’s, Plymouth-Shiloh, Crestview and Madison, who also qualified at the Richland bee, as well as top spellers from Crawford and Morrow counties.
The top
three students in the Mansfield Middle School spelling bee also competed in the
Richland bee. They were Camryn Hood, winner of the MMS bee; Darieon Cantrill
and Jayda Hullum. They are coached by Courtney Nabb.
The Feb. 13 Tri-County
Spelling Bee will begin at 6:30 p.m. Mid-Ohio ESC is located at 890 W. Fourth
St. in Mansfield.