Excitement cannot even describe how N’Adom Darko-Asare, of DPS International Ghana, who emerged as the winner of the 2022 Spelling Bee competition, is feeling. All the 10-year-old could say after the hours and hours of spelling is “my learning and efforts paid off!!!”
Throughout an intense 12 rounds of competing with other intelligent spellers, she won with her championship word ‘BATHYPELAGIC’.
Being the champion, she has won a trip to Washington DC, USA to represent Ghana at the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, US$500 spending money, an engraved trophy, a fully installed DStv Explora decoder with a six-month subscription, Indomie products, a gold medal, and GH¢300 Goil fuel vouchers.
10-year-old Nii Odartey Elorm Manyo-Plange of the Roman Ridge School emerged first runner-up, and 11-year-old Aarna Bhaveshkumar Tailor, from the DPS International Ghana, emerged as the second runner-up.
Nii Odartey Elorm Manyo-Plange won a trip to Nairobi sponsored by Kenya Airways, US$150 spending money, a fully installed DStv HD Zapper decoder with three months compact viewing, Indomie products, a silver medal, and GH¢150 Goil fuel vouchers.
Aarna Bhaveshkumar Tailor also won a trip to Nairobi sponsored by Kenya Airways, US$150 spending money, a fully installed DStv HD Zapper decoder with three months compact viewing, Indomie products, a bronze medal, and GH¢150 Goil fuel vouchers.
The trio will also receive a cash prize of US$500 and US$200 dollars each respectively from the first lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo.
For Eugenia Tachie-Menson, Country Director of the Young Educators Foundation, organizers of The Spelling Bee, this year was a record year as the winner, N’Adom Darko-Asare happens to be the younger sister of 2019 champion, Kwabena Adu Darko-Asare and the first runner up this year, Nii Odartey Elorm Manyo-Plange is the younger brother of last years’ champion Naa Koshie Manyo-Plange.
According to Nii Odartey, though he wishes to take over the championship from his elder sister, he is proud of himself to have come that far.
On an inspiring note, Aarna Bhaveshkumar Tailor bragged of coming third in the 2022 final rounds though ended up at the third round of last year’s competition.
For her part N’Adom said though the elder brother being a previous champion placed some sort of pressure on her, she is glad to have sailed through.
Invest time and resources
The first lady of the republic, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, who was proud of the young spellers, encouraged parents and schools to invest time and resources to enable more children to participate in competitive brain activities such as The Spelling Bee.
She added that her outfit is looking forward to a collaboration between The Spelling Bee and the Rebecca foundation’s ‘learning to read, reading to learn’ programme. She also commended the team for their inclusive policy that supports students with special needs to participate in the programme adding that disabilities should not be an excuse to deny students from participating in impactful programmes.
Other Awardees
The newly introduced yellow bee awards which will allow two extra Spellers to join the champion to represent Ghana on the international level went to Speller 30, Petra Sarpong and speller 47, Annie-Lois Acheampong. The selection was based on the fact that these spellers have done all their homework, scored 70percent and above in the homework, achieved 70percent and above in round one of the finals, and have gone the farthest in the competition.
The Honeybee Award which sought to celebrate three spellers who have made it to the National Finals for three consecutive years saw Winfreda Esuon, Ruth Obeng Davis, and Nanaabena Obiri winning the category. The trio won meals from Frankie’s Restaurant and Goil fuel coupons each worth GH¢250.
Also, Beekeeper Award recipients are Angels Specialist School International, DPS Ghana International, and AGA School -these Schools have been adjudged the most supportive schools and have won GH¢ 1,000 Goil fuel vouchers each.
Ten spellers, Kwasi Boakye, N’Adom Darko-Asare, Nana Yaw Obiri, Aaliyah Harvey-Ewusi, Annie-Lois Acheampong, Fillmora Narkotey, Nii Odartey Manyo-Plange, Edem Zigah, Abiba Alhassan Abubakari, and Petra Sarpong won the Buzzer Bee Awards which sought to reward the best 10 spellers in the vocabulary test.
The first five awardees of this category have won a DStv-staycation at one of Ghana’s most picturesque locations. The 6th to 8th will have two weeks camp in Ashesi University’s AIX programme, also the 9th and 10th won internet data worth GH¢300, and GH¢250 Goil fuel vouchers.
All other spellers were given a certificate of recognition, Indomie products, customised T-shirts, commemorative medals, a customised bag, and novels donated by the PAS-US Embassy, while the top three winners’ schools each received a certificate of recognition, GH¢1,000 fuel vouchers sponsored by GOIL.
10 misspelled words
Among the many misspelled words that kicked out most of the spellers, ten include billabong, laureate, requiem, habiliments, halifax, physicist, nubilous, catalepsy, cathect, and toroidal.
