Gabby Gutierrez (4th Grade Elementary School Champion) and Pascal Zue Weisberger (7th Grade Middle School Champion) represented Treasure Village Montessori at the 79th Annual Miami Regional Spelling Bee on February 19th. Held at The University of Miami, Gabby and Pascal competed against 164 other school champions from Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. This was TVM’s first time competing at the Regional Spelling Bee but you would not have known it based on the results!
After mastering over 450 words to win TVM’s School-wide Spelling Bee, Gabby and Pascal learned an additional 1150 words for the Miami Spelling Bee which included words with Latin, Arabic, German, Slavic, Greek, Japanese and Spanish origins. The morning competition began with a written test which consisted of both spelling and vocabulary questions for such words as ephemeral, facetious, Bildungsroman, voortrekker, and glockenspiel. All of the spellers then went on stage for an oral preliminary round. The scores of both of these were then tallied and the group of 166 was whittled down to the top 15. Gabby Gutierrez was one of the top 15 finalists and spelled her way with aplomb through six grueling rounds finishing in a tie for 5th place overall!! Pascal Zue Weisberger did a stupendous job as well finishing in the top 20 and missing the finals by only 2 points.
After a total of 14 rounds, Rodrigo Medinilla (7th Grade), of Pinecrest Preparatory Middle High, was crowned the winner. The winning word was ascervation, which according to Merriam-Webster means accumulation. Rodrigo already has an impressive resume: Mensa member, contestant on NBC’s “Genius Junior” and participant in the World Championship Robotics Competition. He will now join about 500 top spellers from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and across the globe at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. in May.
Congratulations to Gabby and Pascal on an outstanding job!! Treasure Village Montessori is so very proud of you!
