John H. Woodson’s Makayla Todman Becomes Two-Time Territorial Spelling Bee Champ

ST. THOMAS — Makayla Todman, a 7th grader at John H. Woodson Jr. High on St. Croix, who won last year’s Territorial Spelling Bee championship, repeated her victory with a big win on Wednesday at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School Auditorium, Department of Education has said. Her winning word this time around was villatic.

The 12-year-old was the last one standing at the end of the eleventh round. Her opponents, Carmindy Pickering, a fifth grader at Pearl B. Larsen Elementary and Jacinda Dubois of St. Patrick’s Catholic School took second and third places, respectively.

The Territorial Spelling Bee is the longest-running academic competition in the Virgin Islands. This year, it was sponsored by The Virgin Islands Daily News, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and the Virgin Islands Department of Education. The Daily News has been a sponsor since 1985.

“This Bee is an opportunity to showcase the best and the brightest students in the territory,” said Education Commissioner Sharon Ann McCollum, Ph.D., who observed the competition from the audience with parents, friends and government officials. “These students worked very, very hard with their coaches and with the close support of their families to earn a place in this competition. This is their big day,” she added.

In the first phase of competition, elementary, middle and high school students competed among their peers to represent their school in the District Spelling Bee. Next, approximately 22 to 26 students from each district competed in that contest. Then, the top six students from each district competed in the Territorial Spelling Bee. Makayla will travel to Washington, D.C. to represent the Virgin Islands at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, May 22-27, 2016.

The funniest moment of the territorial competition came in the third round when V’Andre Rochester, a student at Joseph Sibilly Elementary on St. Thomas, was asked to spell the wordantibiotic. With a brief hesitation, he spelled the word correctly and then in relief blurted, “I’m done!” The audience erupted in laughter.

The eleven rounds tested the spelling skills of all of the contestants. They were asked to spell words such as vernacular, bara, gestalt, insidious, and megalopolis, to name a few. Each contestant, when uncertain of a word’s spelling, could ask for its pronunciation, meaning, or origin in an effort to gain a better grasp of how the word is spelled.  Ultimately, Makayla proved to be the best speller among her competitors.

Attendees included Assistant Commissioner Chermaine Hobson-Johnson, St. Thomas-St. John District Superintendent Dionne Wells-Hedrington, and Deputy Superintendent Raquel Berry-Benjamin, along with other Education Department officials. Members of the Senate in attendance were Senators Justin Harrigan, Tregenza Roach and Marvin Blyden.