2024 Arizona State Spelling Bee State Finalists

CW7 Arizona

As the official state coordinator of the Arizona Spelling Bee, Arizona Educational Foundation (AEF®) is proud to announce the 28 Arizona Spelling Bee Finalists.  Arizona has one of the largest Spelling Bee participation rates in the nation, with over 500,000students competing this year from public, private, parochial and homeschools statewide. For the two students who place first and second place in the Arizona Spelling Bee, AEF supports travel for the students and their chaperones to represent the state of Arizona as official champions in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland. The Arizona State Spelling is scheduled for Saturday, March 16th, at the Madison Center for the Arts in Phoenix, located at 5601 N 16th St. in Phoenix. The event is free and open to the public beginning with the first round of bee competition at 9:30 am with the final round of bee competition at 1:15 pm. The venue opens to the public thirty minutes before each round (9:00am and 12:45pm). For more information visit https://www.azedfoundation.org/spelling-bee

Transcript

00:00 - Okay, the Arizona Spelling Bee finalist is coming up

00:04 and we are lucky to have two other students competing

00:07 to go on to the big Scripps National Spelling Bee

00:10 in Maryland.

00:11 And Emily Ramirez, Laura, is here to tell us

00:13 how we can cheer on the students for this big competition.

00:17 But let's back it up and talk about the Arizona Foundation

00:20 and how important you guys are to education

00:23 throughout Arizona.

00:25 - Yeah, so the Arizona Educational Foundation

00:28 has been in the spelling bee business

00:30 for well over 20 years.

00:32 We've been the official state sponsor since 2001

00:37 and we partner directly with the Scripps National Spelling Bee

00:40 in order to help bring our students

00:42 all the way to nationals.

00:44 - And this is a big spelling bee,

00:46 and again, the Scripps Spelling Bee has been around

00:47 since I was a little kid.

00:49 And it's, I know, don't look at me like that, guys.

00:51 It's been around that long.

00:53 And so this is really big for students to get to here

00:56 because there's scholarships,

00:57 there's all kinds of things.

00:58 And it's on national TV now, which is amazing.

01:02 But here we have our finals coming up on March 16th.

01:07 - Yep, March 16th at the Madison Center of the Arts.

01:11 We will begin around 9.30 in the morning

01:14 and it is free and open to the public.

01:16 So we'd love everybody to come and help support.

01:20 These are just two of our 28 spellers

01:22 that we will be showcasing that day.

01:25 So yeah, come on and cheer us on.

01:27 - And so, and these are students are all over Arizona.

01:30 And so how do they make it to this far?

01:32 How many times do they have to go through

01:33 to make it this far?

01:34 - Well, in Arizona, we have over 500,000 students

01:39 that end up competing through the spelling bee,

01:42 which start at the school in classrooms,

01:45 then they go on to school bees,

01:47 then we have district bees,

01:48 then they go and compete on to regionals or county bees.

01:52 And then ultimately, we are left

01:54 with 28 Arizona state finalists.

01:57 That will come and compete in March for the state finals.

02:01 - I like that.

02:01 And we have two of them here.

02:02 Let's introduce ourselves.

02:03 You are?

02:04 - Aliyah Alpert.

02:05 - And?

02:06 - Alvink.

02:07 - Yes, and this is really great.

02:08 Fifth grade, right?

02:10 - Yes.

02:11 - Yes, in A3.

02:12 - Yeah.

02:13 - Yeah, and now let me talk,

02:13 'cause you've been there before.

02:15 And we'll get to you in just a minute,

02:16 'cause you've been up on five.

02:18 And so I'm like nervous,

02:19 but I gotta look at my competition here.

02:20 So how was it going to the Scripps National?

02:24 - It was great.

02:25 - Yeah?

02:26 - So how much do you practice with this?

02:27 How much do you like spend learning words and doing things?

02:31 - I spend, well, four and a half hours daily about,

02:34 sometimes a little more.

02:35 - And do you know how many words you know?

02:37 Or is it just kind of like they're all just out there

02:39 and you find them?

02:40 - Well, at least hopefully,

02:42 I definitely know the 4,000 words

02:44 on Words of the Champions list,

02:46 which is what Scripps takes some of their words from.

02:50 And then there are other lists that you should know too,

02:54 because they'll take it from that as well.

02:56 - 4,000 words, oh my goodness, that's amazing.

02:59 So now do you know any languages or any of them?

03:01 Or like background?

03:03 - You do study languages.

03:05 I mean, I speak a little bit of Spanish,

03:07 but you study language rules, language patterns,

03:09 like what to guess,

03:11 because ultimately you're gonna get a word

03:13 that you don't know.

03:14 You have to be able to guess.

03:15 - Wow, okay.

03:15 And with you, you've been there,

03:17 you've been a finalist of getting there and fifth place.

03:21 And so how much do you practice the words?

03:25 - I study the list of 4,000,

03:28 and then I study about two hours in the weekend

03:32 and about an hour each day.

03:36 - So because you have school.

03:37 Wow, that's amazing.

03:38 Now, do you get nervous up there?

03:39 Are you scared or anything when you go up there?

03:42 - I'm terrified, but I mean, maybe that's just me.

03:45 - Oh my goodness, to know the words.

03:46 So this is so cool.

03:47 Okay, we thought we'd go ahead

03:49 and give our own Spelling Bee competition here

03:52 with the students.

03:54 And so you have some official words there?

03:56 - Yes, I do.

03:57 - Okay, so who should we start with?

04:00 The winner, me, or who do you wanna go with?

04:03 - We'll leave you for last.

04:04 You know, I have some special words for you, Brad.

04:07 - Oh, do you?

04:08 Oh no, all right.

04:09 - All right, Aliyah, your word is exposition.

04:13 - Exposition, E-X-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N, exposition.

04:18 - Correct.

04:20 - All right, all right.

04:22 All right, Alric, denunciation.

04:25 - Denunciation, may I please have the definition?

04:30 - Yes, the act of pronouncing as a person, idea,

04:35 course of conduct, or political philosophy

04:38 to be blameworthy or evil.

04:40 The senator's speech was a denunciation

04:42 of many federal programs.

04:45 - Denunciation, D-E-N-U-N-C-I-A-T-I-O-N, denunciation.

04:50 - D-E-N-U-C-I-A-T-I-O-N, denunciation.

04:55 - Correct.

04:57 - All right, well, there you go.

04:58 All right, well, that's good.

04:59 We ran out of time for me.

05:00 All right, that's, okay, you know what, actually?

05:03 - We'll try one word.

05:04 - Information's on the screen on how you can go out

05:06 and support them all, so you can get over

05:07 to azdailymix.com.

05:09 Go ahead and give me my word right now,

05:11 and we'll see if I can get it before we go into break.

05:13 - Okay, butyratious.

05:17 - And we'll be back with more of the Arizona Daily Mix

05:19 after this, so stick around.

05:21 (chuckles)

05:24 (silence)

05:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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