The Rhode Island State Spelling Bee
Saturday,
March 15,
10 a.m.
Enroll Your School
WELCOME
Thank you for your interest in the Rhode Island State Spelling Bee. The Bee is tentatively scheduled to be held on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 10 a.m. at The Gamm Theatre in Warwick, RI. You’ll find all the information you need here. Remember, only students from schools registered with the Scripps National Spelling Bee may participate. Thank you!
- James Quinn, deputy publisher, The Valley Breeze.
Rhode Island Spelling Bee News
SCITUATE – Hope Elementary School 5th-grader Elliana Pagliarini landed in Washington, D.C. this week to represent Rhode Island in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and she said she was ready for a week full of nothing but words.
Pagliarini, daughter of Heather and Rich Pagliarini, said she studied hundreds of words to prepare for the two-night competition May 29-30 in the nation’s capital. The national competition also requires participants to define words, she said.
Pagliarini previously won the Rhode Island State Spelling Bee, sponsored by The Breeze.
Her first day in the capital was spent getting acquainted with the resort, and meeting other contestants. There are 245 contestants, and Pagliarini has made it to the quarterfinals, in the top 148.
On Monday, Pagliarini proudly waved the Rhode Island flag during the opening ceremonies. She is the only contestant representing Rhode Island.
Spellers at the national bee beat state and regional spelling competitions, with 11 million spellers competing in total, said Pagliarini’s mother, Heather.
Spelling began on Wednesday, Pagliarini said, with the contestant spelling one word after studying 900 words. If she spelled that correctly, she would move on to the second round of vocabulary.
For that competition, Pagliarini said, she studied 1,700 words and definitions, and will be asked to define only one word.
During the next round, Pagliarini would spell multiple words from a 500-word selection. The competition runs for three hours until the judges have a certain number of spellers for the quarter-final, she said.
Words for the quarter-final are selected from the unabridged dictionary of 75,000 words.
“You never know which words you’re going to get,” she said.
Heather said that not all words are in English, either. Some words are in German, Yiddish, Javanese, or Sanskrit.
“I have no problem with Sanskrit,” she stated.
After that, a final round will be held with 13 spellers, where the winner receives a $50,000 prize and bragging rights, Pagliarini said.
“There has never been a champion from Rhode Island. I hope to be the first in Rhode Island to win,” she added.
Pagliarini and her mother agree that her chances are pretty good for the win, since she already won the Scituate Spelling Bee twice, and she’s eligible to compete for another three years. She said she likes to spell and loves the competition.
“I’m happy that I’ve pushed myself to be here,” she said.
On her trip, Pagliarini has spent plenty of time playing word games. She said the spellers have a yearbook where they collect each other’s signatures, and she’s met numerous other spellers, including last year’s champion.
“It’s really cool,” she said.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee can be viewed on the ION channel for free on May 30 at 8 p.m.
LINCOLN - After several nail-biting rounds, St. Margaret School's eighth grader Penelope Sargeant reigned victorious after spelling the word “telegnosis” and winning word “interpellate” correctly.
Sargeant, who is the daughter of Christine and Greg Sargeant, will move on to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May and represent the state.
The State Spelling Bee, sponsored annually by The Valley Breeze , is in its 15th year at Lincoln Middle School. The Breeze’s publisher Jamie Quinn served as this year's coordinator, along with WPRI-TV's Kim Kalunian as the official pronouncer.
2023's Chief Judge was Dr. Donna Morelle, former Cumberland Superintendent of Schools, and other judges included Martha Correia from Navigant Credit Union, and Leigh Martin who is a Professor of English at the Community College of Rhode Island.
19 students throughout the state participated this year and took the stage at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 18. Participating students from northern Rhode Island included James MacDonald from Ricci Middle School in North Providence; Ethan Abreu from Lincoln Middle School; Andres Puerta from Central Falls, attending Blackstone Valley Prep; Elenice Zambotto Pupo of Vincent J. Gallagher Middle School in Smithfield; Elliana Pagliarini of Foster, attending Hope Elementary School; and Savannah Gustafson from North Smithfield Elementary School.
The spellers went through 11 rounds with two to three of them eliminated each round. By the 11th round, there were only three spellers left including Sergeant, Ananya Thakkar from Wheeler School and Audrey Sarit from Highland Charter Schools, who put up a good competition, going multiple rounds before Sergeant spelled “telegnosis” and “interpellate” correctly.
Sargeant's mother told The Breeze that she had been studying hard for this, and that Sargeant's mother had herself been a reader since the age of four. Her grandmother, who recently passed away, was also a librarian.
Denise Zavota, a teacher at St. Margaret’s School, who sponsored the school’s bee, was present to support Sargeant on Saturday and said that the win was well deserved, with Sargeant winning her school’s bee every year since fourth grade.
Sargeant joked that she was planning on going on a school trip in May around the same time as the Scripps Spelling Bee, so now that she will be competing there, it’ll be an excuse to extend her trip.