Victory is spelled T-E-M-P-U-R-A at the Great Hearts Spelling Bee

Archway Trivium fourth grader, Carlie Nguyen, won the 2024 Great Hearts Spelling Bee and will be representing Great Hearts as she moves on to the Regional Spelling Bee with the potential to move onto the Arizona State Spelling Bee and ultimately the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Vidyuth Nandeesh, a fifth grader from Archway Anthem was the runner up and Nathan Kirchheimer, a fourth grader from Archway North Phoenix placed third.

It was an exciting night as the 12 scholars each stepped up to the microphone to spell their word for the three judges: Chief Academic Officer Jake Tawney serving as Pronouncer, Curriculum Manager Lisa Armstrong serving as Recorder, and Academic Support Specialist Missy Penniman serving as Accuracy Judge. The competition was held at the VeritasLund Center and was hosted by Archway Trivium.

To compete in the Great Hearts Spelling Bee, K-8 scholars had to first compete and win the Spelling Bee at their academies, thus making them Campus Champions and moving them onto this competition. The other spellers included: Bella Dryer, an eighth grader from Anthem Prep; Petra Connelly, a fifth grader from Archway Arete; Miriam Gonzalez, a fourth grader from Archway Chandler; Shriya Bhardwaj, a seventh grader from Chandler Prep; Kenzley Stark, a fourth grader from Archway Cicero; Emma Ross, a fourth grader from Archway Roosevelt; Joshua Farley, a third grader from Archway Scottsdale; Alexandra Czochara, a seventh grader from Scottsdale Prep; and Mogren, a fifth grader from Archway Veritas.

After several rounds and eliminations, it was down to Nguyen and Nandeesh, who went several rounds as finalists, going back and forth like a tennis match. Both spellers seemed unphased by the tension in the room felt by the families in the audience, who almost held their breathe until the nod was given each time by the judges. That was until Nguyen won with her final word, “tempura.” The tension turned to cheers as Tawney announced that she had indeed spelled the word correctly, thus making her the Champion Speller. She later admitted she was very familiar with the word, since her mother has ordered tempura shrimp many times. “I love tempura shrimp. It’s so delicious,” she said. The meal will feel even more special to Nguyen and her family from this point on.

Nguyen said the Spalding curriculum that she learns at Great Hearts helped her with her spelling and understanding of why words are spelled the way they are. “It helps me by making me understand why words are spelled so weirdly, because English can be a tough one when it comes to languages,” she said. She also thanked her mother and her sister for quizzing her with practice words at home.

“Carlie is a stellar student who understands the why behind the words through her careful attention in class and through her devoted perseverance to study the spelling words daily,” said Dean Christen Arbogast. “She is an outstanding example of when virtue meets academic excellence.”

Besides earning the title of 2024 Great Hearts Spelling Bee Champion and moving on to the Regional Spelling Bee, Nguyen will make an appearance on a morning segment at Fox 10 where she will talk about her experience and have a chance to do a spell-off with the correspondents.

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