82.7 F
Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesSt. Croix Sixth Grader Spells His Way to Championship

St. Croix Sixth Grader Spells His Way to Championship

March 11, 2009 — Raheem Knight blinked wide-eyed and grinned from ear to ear Wednesday when he realized he had won the 2009 Territorial Spelling Bee.
For the championship, he slowly and thoughtfully spelled "inadvertent" in the single-word 11th round. As the territory champion, he will go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
"I'm a nervous wreck even though I won," Raheem said. "I'm half nervous and half happy."
His mom, Zoraida Knight, ran to the front of the room, stepped up on the riser, gave him a big hug and with tears of joy cried, "I'm so proud of you."
As he stood straight and tall at the microphone at the Divi Carina Bay Casino conference center, Raheem asked for "inadvertent" to be repeated a couple of times — as he did for each word throughout the competition.
"He knew and took advantage of the rules that allowed him to ask for a repeat of the word, definition, origin, alternate pronunciation and word usage in a sentence," said Denise Jefferson, his coach. "I'm elated that he won."
Raheem, the son of Kevin and Zoraida Knight, is 11 years old and in the sixth grade at Pearl B. Larsen Elementary School. He said his favorite subject is spelling.
"I'm astonished," Kevin Knight said. "But I knew he could do it. He kept it together very well."
As the first-place winner, Raheem earned a $100 savings bond, a trophy, an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington and a copy of the Third National-International Merriam-Webster dictionary.
"I got this gigantic dictionary with thousands of pages that I will use to practice for the national competition," Raheem said. He started to practice in December with Merriam-Webster dictionary software and help from his parents and coaches.
The 36th annual bee, with 12 top territory spellers competing, lasted about two hours. Sadiyah Ali, a 12-year-old student at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, came in second after she misspelled "subjugate."
Ruth Harrigan Beagles, the first principal at Pearl B. Larsen, was honored by the Department of Education for her years of commitment and support of the V.I. Spelling Bee.
The bee was sponsored by the Department of Education and the V.I. Daily News.
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.