Pierce Downer Student Finishes Runner-Up at Spelling Bee

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fifth-grader Madeline Degiorgio was the first runner-up in the DuPage County spelling bee Feb. 21 in Lisle.

The word that ended up stumping her after about 10 rounds was indubitable, which gave St. Walter School eighth grader Sophia Whittemore of Glendale Heights the win—but it is indubitable that Madeline Degiorgio is a very talented speller.

Degiorgio stood against some pretty tough competition in Whittemore, who is also versed in Indonesian, Spanish and Hebrew.

“Madeline just did a phenomenal job. She was calm, cool and collected throughout the entire event,” said Madeline’s teacher, Kelly DeMarco.

Degiorgio earned the opportunity to participate in the county-wide bee by correctly spelling “perturb” to win her all-school bee on Feb. 8.

To prepare for the all-school bee, Degiorgio went over words with her mother, who also happens to be a champion speller. After winning the school bee, she spent the next two weeks practicing her spelling every day after school using an iPhone voice recorder.

Arriving at the county spelling bee was a bit of a shock—the 28 contestants sit on a brightly-lit stage in a large auditorium, and spell their words at a microphone in front of three judges and an audience of about 100. In addition, the words presented to the spellers in the county bee came from a variety of different areas origin, such as Slavic and Arabic, and many came with difficult pronunciations. But once Degiorgio hit her stride, she was much more comfortable.

“I was nervous the first round, but I felt calm by about the third round,” Degiorgio said.

Degiorgio said she has always enjoyed spelling and reading—especially the Harry Potter books—and her brother and classmates come to her with spelling questions.

Digiorgio was not the only speller representing Downers Grove. Of the top 28 area spellers, three local spellers took to the stage. In addition to Degiorgio, O’Neill Middle School seventh grader, Melissa Wang and St. Joseph School fifth-grader Grace Tyson stood in competition. Wang earned the chance to participate in the County bee by taking first in the combined Herrick/O’Neill middle school final bee in early February. Tyson was aware of Whittemore’s abilities, having previously competed in a 2 1/2 hour, 17-round DuPage Regional Private School competition, from which the top three competitors moved on to the County bee.

Whittemore now moves on to Washington, D.C. to compete in the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee in June.