Ghana’s Spelling Bee rep arrives home

Ghana's representative in the 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee is expected home on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.

Thirteen year old of Maria Isabel Yirebatiya Kubabom of the SOS Herman Gmeinner School in Tema, made it to the last elimination round before the quarter finals, in a competition of 288 spellers.

Isabel's elimination word was 'SEDER' which she spelt 'SADAR' (pronounced 'say-dar'). Also eliminated at that stage were two spellers of Ghanaian lineage, 12 year old Kennyi Aouad representing the Otter Creek Middle School in Terre Haute, US [whose parents are both Ghanaians from the Northern Region] and 12-year old Robertha Octavia Dean-McIntosh from the St. Francis de Sales Catholic High School in The Bahamas [whose grand mother is from Ghana].

The competition was won by 13-year old Sameer Mishra of the West Lafayette Junior High School in Indiana, USA. The winning word was 'GUERDON'. He took home a giant engraved loving cup trophy, $30,000 in cash, a $2,500 US Savings Bond and a complete reference library. He also received $5,000 cash from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation and reference works valued at more than $3,800 from Encyclopædia Britannica.

Sidharth Chand from the Detroit Country Day Middle School in Beverly Hills, Michigan- USA came second after misspelling the word 'PROSOPOPOEIA' as 'PROSOPOPOEA'. Third place went to Tia Thomas from the Mountain Home School Charter in California, USA who spelt the word 'OPIFICER' wrongly [EPIFICER].

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Ninety spellers made it to the quarter finals and forty-five to the semi finals of the competition that took place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington DC, USA.

Isabel who holds and was recognised as the first ever speller representing an African country, together with other children aged between 9 and 11 held the audience spellbound with some of the unfamiliar and tricky words they pronounced correctly.

Her participation was made possible by mobile communication giants, Tigo, main sponsors of the Spelling Bee Ghana Event, with support from Fidelity Bank, National Lottery Authority, and DStv.

Ghana is the first African country to ever present a representative at the Scripps finals. Another first time country is South Korea. International [non-US] competitors have been part of the bee for three decades, and two winners have come from outside the 50 American states: Hugh Tosteson of Puerto Rico in 1975 and Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Canada's Nate Gartke was last year's runner-up.
Isabel was entered into the competition by the dailyEXPRESS Newspaper, Ghana's only FREE newspaper and Essence Communications, franchise holders for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Ghana.

She was accompanied to the competition by her spelling coach Evangeline Bortey also from SOS and mother Mrs. Marian Kubabom. In addition to the competition, the team joined other spellers, teachers, families and sponsors in many fun and educational tours.