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J.D. Long-García/CATHOLIC SUN
Jennica Dumond, the St. Thomas the Apostle seventh-grader who would go on to win the Diocesan Spelling Bee, waits her next turn. St. John Vianney eighth-grader Kolton Boothman and St. Gregory seventh-grader Joseph Kimbuende, who tied for third, sit with other students eliminated from competition.
St. Thomas seventh-grader
wins diocesan spelling bee
By J.D. Long-García, The Catholic Sun
February 7, 2008
If you’re a Catholic school student eyeing a win at the annual diocesan spelling bee, you might want to remember “condolence.”
For the past two years, that was the final, winning word.
Jennica Dumond, seventh-grader at St. Thomas the Apostle School, took first prize at the bee Jan. 29 at St. Francis Xavier School.
After David Gonsalves, principal at Notre Dame Preparatory in Scottsdale, called out what would be the final word, Dumond knew she’d won. She could hardly keep herself from smiling as she spelled out “c-o-n-d-o-l-e-n-c-e.”
“It feels great,” she said after winning. “I’ve been hoping for this for a while.”
Dumond was one of 27 fourth- through eighth-grade students who, having first won the right to represent their school, competed. She practiced her words for an hour every other day.
Yet her favorite subject isn’t English. Instead Dumond prefers science or math. Her spelling ability, Dumond’s mother suggested, comes from her avid reading of books on horses, which she rides regularly.
“Pleurisy” was the only word St. John Bosco seventh-grader Paulina Mangubat spelled wrong that night.
“I should have asked for the language of origin,” she said after the bee. Students at her school — under the guidance of Theresa Harvey, the school librarian — learn how the language of origin can dictate a word’s spelling.
“That’s an invaluable skill that they can use later in life — not only for spelling words,” Harvey said. Knowing a word’s language of origin can also help with its definition.
In addition to studying every night, Mangubat also made the Sign of the Cross before each turn. She said she began the habit while serving in volleyball.
“It helps me concentrate,” she said, “and God helps too.”
Mangubat had to spell medical terms like pleurisy throughout the bee. Her parents, both doctors, teased her that it was a sign of things to come.
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