Roosevelt’s Spelling Bee Ready for Spring
By Kathya Anguiano |
David Peacher, a junior and Alexis Garcia, a sophomore, are competing tomorrow, Saturday Feb. 23 at 9 a.m. at the University of Incarnate Word to represent Roosevelt High School at the Spanish Spelling Bee.
A reception will be held at 9 .am. and the competition will begin at 10 a.m. which will be sponsored by News 41, San Antonio Express-News, Unimas and UIW. Last week were selections from the three students that competed, Teresa Ojoy, a sophomore, Peacher and Garcia. After a 30-minute back and forth competition between Ojoy and Peacher on Friday, Feb. 15, names were submitted by 5 p.m. for the last two finalists.
“Students are given a booklet to study all words from A through Z, they need to study their accents and specify letters and vowels,” Alfredo Aguirre, Spanish Department Head, said. ” This competition has been available since 1991, and out of those 20 years this is the first year Roosevelt competes in the Spelling Bee, it’s pretty exciting.”
With Aguirre being at Roosevelt since 2007, he is ready to go big and promote any opportunities that are given to students.
“I didn’t know how well Teresa was but I felt like I would do good,” Peacher said. “Going in I was afraid of how many people were going to compete because I knew some would have a better chance. I was afraid of getting words wrong the first time but I knew I had a fifty-fifty chance. I’ve studied for thirty minutes with my mom for like two or three days for last Friday but I am 8o percent ready for Saturday, just need to work on my accents.”
With Peacher at edge competing for his second time, being a Non-Native speaker, he has come to realize he is good at spelling in spanish. Garcia will represent Native Speakers.
“I felt pretty nervous going in, but I was happy that I was automatically qualified because I was the only Native Speaker that showed up even though I would of liked some competition,” Garcia, said. “I was very confident on my spelling, but now I’m nervous because I know there will be more than just three people showing up this time. I moved from Mexico about a year ago and I just learned English coming to the U.S. I’m a fast learner but one thing I can not learn to get over is my stage fright so I’m pretty on edge about that.”
Stage fright or no stage fright, these students have gone far enough and will make Roosevelt proud.