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Staff Reports:

On Wednesday morning, December 1st, Furlow Charter School held their first Scripps National Spelling Bee (SNSB) local competition, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Americus. The purpose of the Scripps Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, and develop correct English usage that will help them their whole lives.  

Every year, students across the nation from 4th through 8th grade have the opportunity to participate in the SNSB. The National Spelling Bee began in 1925 and now reaches 11 million students annually who progress from classroom, school, county, region, state, and finally national competition. The Sumter County SNSB County Champion will compete with 34 other county or system champions at the Region 9 competition in Bainbridge on February 27th.

The Furlow English Language Arts teachers, guided by Jaclyn Campbell, coordinated the spelling competition and organized the final event. Furlow held classroom competitions and each grade level sent two students to compete in the schoolwide competition.

Kiwanis International’s mission is serving the children of the world and this academic competition follows that goal. The Kiwanis Club of Americus provided awards and entry fees and members Herschel Smith served as the Pronouncer, Sumter County Chief Magistrate Crystal Cleveland served as Judge and Kiwanis President Blake Hill served as the recorder.

This year the 4th thru 8th grades were represented by two students. The first student listed was the grade champion:

4th Andrew Goodman and Eli Parks.  

5th Kynslee Collis and JD Pinnell

6th Riley Moore and Carmen Flakes

7th Maya Campbell and Cole Parkinson

8th Logan Luten and Penelope Uzcategui

 After 12 rounds of spelling where the students asked for clarification of meaning, language of origin, or usage in a sentence prior to spelling the assigned word, the competition was narrowed down to Kynslee Collins and Maya Campbell.  Kynslee Collins correctly spelled the championship word “Juneteenth” after several more rounds to claim the victory as the 2022 Furlow Charter School Spelling Bee Champion and will represent Sumter County in the Region 9 SNSB Spelling Bee in February.

The nine region and GISA winners and runners-up will compete in the Georgia SNSB Championship in Atlanta which will be held March 18th, and then the National finals will be held in Washington DC in June.