RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Under Mary Munford Elementary School’s auditorium lights, a fifth-grader and a seventh grader were the last spellers standing Tuesday night.
Max Ulman, representing the East End’s Franklin Military Leadership Academy — joined the ranks of the Richmond Public Schools Spelling Bee champions.
“A-F-F-I-L-I-A-T-E,” Ulman stated confidently, with a knowing smile. “Affiliate.”
Moments later, with his family and principal, David Hudson, beaming offstage, Ulman accepted his First Place trophy from the school district’s English Language Arts Coordinator, Eboni Massey.
Dressed in his slacks, crisp shirt and tie and Academy sport coat, Ulman was the picture of scholarship and leadership–two of the Academy’s main tenets for students to live by.
Standing next to him, with a less enthusiastic smile than she’d worn all evening, but a smile nonetheless, Chimborazo Elementary fifth-grader Glorious Edidiongabasi Steve-Essi cradled her 2nd Place trophy for a picture.
As Steve-Essi’s father told 8News Anchor Deanna Allbrittin, who served as the pronouncer for the Bee, just winning her school’s competition, let alone placing second-place in the district-wide one, was an amazing accomplishment. The family, he said, just immigrated from Nigeria less than two years ago, so she’s also had to tackle adjusting to a new life.
And so it was, after spelling each of their first six words, claiming victory over 30 other school champions, Steve-Essie and Ulman remained locked in a battle for the championship over multiple rounds. The 10-year-old nearly bested her 12-year-old counterpart in the first of three rounds, but wasn’t able to correctly spell her second word in a row to take home the top prize.
After a successful spelling of “jubilant”, and the errant consonant or vowel in “injurious”, “vandalize”, “allergenic”, “apparatus” and “vicarious”, Ulman triumphed with “attrition” and finally, the championship word, “affiliate.”
And Wednesday at school, he’ll learn how happy Franklin Military Academy is to be affiliated with the 2024 RPS Spelling Champ.
