By Vilma Angulo - St. Bonaventure Church
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
St. Bonaventure fifth grader Simone Kaplan poses with her first place certificate after the Broward County spelling bee. With her are the school's resource teacher, Stella DiBattista, left, and Simone's mother, Alana Kaplan.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
St. Bonaventure fifth grader Simone Kaplan poses with her first place certificate after the Broward County spelling bee. She will travel to Maryland at the end of May to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
DAVIE | A fifth grader from St. Bonaventure School won the Broward County Spelling Bee March 14 and will represent Broward County at the national competition in Maryland at the end of May. Simone Kaplan went 14 rounds in the finals, winning with the word "dorado."
She and St. Bonaventure sixth grader Stephany Jimenez were among 105 students who took the written test and, based on that score, were admitted to the semifinals oral round. Only 40 students made it that far. Simone then proceeded to the finals, where only 16 students were left, and won first place.
Second place went to an eighth grader from Pine Crest School, and third place to another eighth grader from North Broward Preparatory School.
Simone will attend the opening ceremony of Bee Week in Washington D.C. May 29, take the Preliminaries Test May 31, and hopefully continue to the Preliminaries June 1, and Finals June 2.
A total of 105 students in grades two through eight participated in the Broward segment of the 77th annual Miami Herald Spelling Bee, representing 70 schools. Of those, 11 were Catholic, and the rest were public, private, charter and home schools.
