Seventh grader Marium Zahra is a step closer to vying for a national championship after winning the El Paso Regional Spelling Bee with the word, realgar.
Zahra, who attends Young Women s STEAM Research & Prep Academy, is an El Paso-native and former Mesita Elementary School student. She also won the Spanish spelling bee for EPISD in 2020. I feel like it s just that pride that you re going to be the one representing your entire city, and if I do make it into the top 10 or 15 I ll be going to Orlando and that would be really fun, Zahra said in a video interview released by the district after the event.
The event will work like a traditional spelling bee. Three judges and one pronouncer will meet in person at the EPISD board room. A control room will be set up to monitor the competition and secure its fairness. Competitors will go through rounds spelling words until a winner is determined.
The winner will compete for an invitation to the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which was canceled in 2020 due to safety concerns about large gatherings of people during the pandemic. The event hadn t been canceled prior to last year since World War II.
Not all regional winners will compete nationally this year because of the pandemic.