Ms. Raffo and the North Middle School English Department hosted the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee school-wide competition on Wednesday, January 15th. Forty-one 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students participated in this exciting event. 

Mr. Michael Norberto served as the official pronouncer, while Mr. Dan Del Ferraro, Ms. Trina Rice, Ms. Ann Wang, Ms. Kimberly Bliss, and Ms. Victoria Andreacchi acted as our judges. Ms. Ashley Burton, Ms. Melissa Sephton and Ms. Kelly Murray,  assisted and supervised the participants on stage. 

12 rounds and over 300 words later, the Spelling Bee slowly weaned down to two students - both former NMS Spelling Bee Champs AND participants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.: Victor Yang, 7th grade, and Brian Liu, 8th grade.

After an additional 10 rounds of head to head competition, Brian triumphed as the winner spelling the championship word: chartreuse

Brian will go on to represent North Middle once again at the Scripps National Spelling Bee Regional Competition. 

We are very proud of all of our participants and wish Brian the best of luck at the regional level!