Two Alaska students head to Scripps National Spelling Bee

Two Alaska middle-schoolers are competing in the scripps national spelling bee in Washington, D.C. this week. Aidan Cole of Kenai is 14, and Andie Seavey of Fairbanks is 13.

The competition includes 247 contestants from around the country. The national champion will receive a $50,000 cash prize and a commemorative medal, while second place gets $25,000 and third place gets $15,000.

Aidan Cole in Kenai

Cole is an eighth-grader at Kenai Middle School and won the Alaska State Spelling Bee in March by correctly spelling “thrasonical.” He said this is his first year making it to the national competition.

“It was very thrilling to say the least,” Cole said of winning the Alaska State Spelling Bee. “I was not expecting to keep going, especially considering my opponent went to Nationals last year.”

He described his preparation this way: “For the most part, I used the Wordbee app, which contains all the words for levels one and two, and for the rest of it, my Language Arts teacher gave me two books to study,” He added, “On top of that, I looked at the quarterfinals and semifinals from last year just to get a feel for the words.”

Andie Seavey in Fairbanks

Seavey is a seventh-grader at Boreal Sun Charter School in Fairbanks. The pair represent Alaska in a field that also includes 181 public school contestants, 30 private school contestants, 18 charter school contestants, 9 homeschool contestants and 9 parochial school contestants.

Preliminary rounds got underway Tuesday, with advancing competitors set for the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The semifinals begin at 4 a.m. AKDT, and the final round will be televised live from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday on ION channel.