Northern Virginia Student Wins Second Place In 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee Final

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — A student from Northern Virginia was the runner-up in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which held its final Thursday night.

Charlotte Walsh, 14, a student from Arlington in a Fairfax County education program, was one of 11 finalists in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. She made it to the 14th round but misspelled daviely. In the final on Thursday, she correctly spelled gazabo, Jhangar, collembolous and akuammine as well as defined practicing omphaloskepsis as gazing at your navel.

Dev Shah was named the winner after spelling psammophile correctly in the 15th round. The 14-year-old is from Largo, Florida and attends Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School.

This was the highest finish for Walsh in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, as she tied for 51st in 2019 and tied for 32nd in 2022. She cannot compete again, as it is limited to students up to eighth grade.

A student of Fairfax County's Compass Homeschool Enrichment, Walsh participated in the spelling bee through the Fairfax County Council PTA. She plans to pursue studies in astrophysics or neuroscience.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland started Wednesday with quarterfinals and semifinals. There were 231 spellers who made it to the national competition by competing in regional spelling bees. Students represent the 50 U.S. states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Department of Defense Schools in Europe, the Bahamas, Canada and Ghana.

Students had to spell their assigned word correctly to advance past each round. In addition, the second round of preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals challenges each student to answer a multiple choice vocabulary question.