Eighth grader wins South Jersey regional spelling bee, advances to Scripps National Spelling Bee

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After 27 rounds and more than two hours of competition Saturday, 13-year-old Isaac Geremew of South Jersey won the WHYY-Billy Penn South Jersey Regional Spelling Bee.

More than 40 students competed at WHYY headquarters in Philadelphia, but the eighth grader from William Davies Middle School clinched the title by correctly spelling “argobba.” Geremew will go on an expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., at the end of May to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Geremew, who studied for one or two hours every day in the months leading up to the competition, said it “feels amazing” to be representing South Jersey at the national bee.

“I feel like my hard work’s paid off, and now I can kind of enjoy the moment, and I’m really grateful to everyone who organized the spelling bee,” he told WHYY News.

All students participating in Saturday’s bee were champions of their middle and elementary school competitions. Award-winning journalist Tracey Matisak hosted the event.

Runner-up Sonia Dragos, 13, a seventh grader at Northfield Community Middle School, congratulated Geremew.

“It’s always tough to be second, but I think Isaac’s a really good speller, and he really deserved it,” she said.

She said she likes spelling because it’s a group effort.

“I really love the community aspect about it, like the number of people that it takes to organize this, and how everybody just can come together and have fun spelling words.”

Geremew said he likes spelling because it is helpful in many ways.

“I love the fact the most that it helps me improve my English,” he said. “You learn all these new words and how to spell them, and really it helps you be a lot more eloquent in English.”

Geremew said his favorite word he’s learned while studying is “je ne sais quoi,” a noun, from French, that, he said, “describes something … incomprehensible, something intangible.”

“I think it’s a really beautiful meaning that it has,” he said.

Dragos’ favorite word she’s learned is “ahuehuete,” a Mexican cypress tree.

“I love it because it’s one of the first very difficult words I learned how to spell,” she said. “And it really made me passionate about spelling, because it showed me how all these different letters can form sounds that I didn’t even know were possible.”

For now, Geremew said, his victory is “probably going to mean a lot more studying” to prepare for the national bee at the end of May.

“I think I’ll be able to meet the challenge, and I’m feeling pretty sure Scripps is going to be pretty fun,” he said.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee was launched more than a century ago by nine newspapers to promote literacy. In 2025, 243 students from across the country participated in the final competition.

Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary is the official dictionary of the Scripps contest. For more than 50 years, the Scripps National Spelling Bee and publisher Merriam-Webster have together chosen the words used in the competition.

WHYY and Billy Penn will host the Philadelphia Regional Spelling Bee next Saturday.