District 140 Spelling Bee Won by Grissom’s Serena Naji

Grissom Middle School seventh grader Serena Naji won the District 140 Spelling Bee on May 2nd. Naji clinched the victory by correctly spelling “dialect”. Coming in a close second was McAuliffe fourth grader Josiah Corral. Third place honors went to Millennium fourth grader Zachary Soprych.

“All of our competitors should be congratulated for their hard work and dedication,” said GATE Resource Teacher Susan Murphy. “It was an awesome competition, and each student did a wonderful job of representing their home school.”

Competing in the spell off were the top two building level representatives from each of the District’s seven schools - a total of 14 competitors from grades four through eight. The competition was coordinated by D140 GATE teachers Susan Murphy, Lisa Sobol-Boyle, Anne Thies, Karen Cronk, and Kate Duchak.

Runners up included: Ryan Burns, Fernway; Nora Dziekan, Bannes; Gavin Kallio, Fernway; Vikram Karra, Prairie View; Nicolette Machacek, Keller; Vincent Magsombol, McAuliffe; Alexander Maliwat, Millennium; Stephen Mathew, Grissom; Shukri Mohammad, Bannes; Christin Sanchez, Prairie View; and Bilal Sarsour, Keller.