Newing’s best spellers congregated at the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center on Sunday night to partake in the first Newing College Spelling Bee.
Heather Cohen, a junior majoring in psychology, won the spelling bee and was awarded the option between a date with judge Anthony Galli or a $15 iTunes gift card. Cohen chose the gift card.
“I’m not good at spelling, I’m just getting lucky,” Cohen said.
Two judges oversaw the three most elite spellers within the Newing community, though nobody showed up to watch.
The judges of the spelling bee were Sarah Park, a sophomore majoring in integrative neuroscience, and Galli, a junior majoring in political science. The three impromptu contestants were Cohen; Sylvester “Manar” Thompson, a junior majoring in chemistry; and Salvatore Rametta, a senior majoring in integrated neuroscience.
Cohen explained how she, Thompson and Rametta stumbled across the spelling bee by chance.
“We weren’t going to attend at all,” she said.
Park even joked about the lack of attendees.
“Honestly, I think the event was a little too big,” she said.
The casual atmosphere persevered throughout the competition as the judges asked Cohen to spell “potpourri.” Cohen spelled the word correctly but was initially surprised with the word and responded, “How do you spell this word?”
The judges channeled their inner Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul during the competition by quarreling over the difficulty of the words. The pronunciation over words such as “paraphernalia” was debated as the frustration level between the judges became evident.
“It’s not too hard!” Park said. “Are you, like, in 10th grade?”
To Park’s dismay, Rametta ultimately lost to Cohen on the word “requisition.”
“I wish Sal spelled a word like ‘quaff’ wrong,” Park said.
Galli said he wants to host similar events in the future and hopes that more people will participate next time.
“I’ve always had a positive association with spelling,” Galli said. “We wanted an event that would appeal to a wide range of people.”
Although the environment of the spelling bee was casual, Park hoped for a more legitimate event. Galli, who helped Park organize the event, explained that more people were originally going to attend the spelling bee, but they never showed up.
“See, the thing was, this really wasn’t supposed to be a joke,” Park said. “I was hoping to spread spelling bee awareness.”