I.S. 211 Student Finishes Ninth In City Spelling Bee

Adrian Conroy

John Wilson Intermediate School 211 eighth grader Adrian Conroy was a finalist in the Daily News 40th An-nual Spelling Bee championship, held Tuesday at the High School of Fashion Industries in Manhattan. The 13-year-old finished ninth in the competition that had 28 students from schools throughout the five boroughs.

The winner was Erik Zyman Car-rasco of Manhattan, who correctly spelled ‘zephyr’ to earn a slot in the national competition in Washington, DC, on June 1.

Conroy earned his way into the city-wide championships when he won the school competition in November and placed in the top three at the Region 6 Spelling Bee in January.

This marks the first time that an I.S. 211 student has reached the citywide competition in the fifteen years that school librarian Mary Buchwald has coordinated the event at John Wilson.

To help him prepare for the citywide competition, Buchwald supplied Conroy a booklet that contains many challenging words that may be used in the rounds leading to the championship.

"You could see right away that Adrian has a very good chance at winning," said Buchwald. "He is an excellent speller with good command of the English language."

I.S. 211 Principal Iris Crystal commented on the student’s accomplishment, saying, "Winning the school Spelling Bee was just the first step. The Region 6 Spelling Bee was step number two. We wanted to see him win the city championship and eventually compete in the nationals in Wash-ington, DC, but it wasn’t meant to be. We’re still very proud of him."

Neil S. Friedman