If Rena Humes, Aiken County's top speller, makes it to the onstage spelling rounds Tuesday at the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee, she'll be in her sweet spot.
“When I get on stage, I get a little anxious, but when I start spelling, that's when I really get into my flow because spelling is pretty easy,” said Rena, a sixth grader at Kennedy Middle School who won the 2019 Aiken County Scripps Spelling Bee in February.
English, language arts and social studies, which require lots of written assignments, naturally are Rena's favorite subjects.
Rena and her parents, Yoon Park and Don Humes, left today for the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The competition will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
The preliminary round, including vocabulary tests, begins Monday. Onstage spelling begins Tuesday for spellers who pass the preliminary test. The primetime finals, featuring the top 50 spellers, will begin at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
More than 500 students ages 7-15 will compete during the weeklong bee.
Read the full Aiken Standard article HERE.