About Scripps The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of television, radio and digital media brands. Scripps is one of the nation’s largest independent TV station owners, with 33 television stations in 24 markets and a reach of nearly one in five U.S. households. It also owns 34 radio stations in eight markets. Scripps also runs an expanding collection of local and national digital journalism and information businesses, including multi-platform satire and humor brand Cracked, podcast industry leader Midroll Media and over-the-top video news service Newsy. Scripps also produces television shows including “The List” and “The Now,” runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and serves as the long-time steward of the nation’s largest, most successful and longest-running educational program, the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Founded in 1878, Scripps has held for decades to the motto, “Give light and the people will find their own way.” The Bee’s Purpose Our purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, CELEBRATING 90 YEARS learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. Scripps National Spelling Bee 312 Walnut Street, 28th Floor Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Before and after Bee Week: 513-977-3040 Media Desk during Bee Week: 301-965-5571 Speller & Sponsor Desk during Bee Week: 301-965-5570 90 2017 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE #spellingbee BEE WEEK GUIDE spellingbee.com 1 THEN NOW Table of Competition Schedule 1 Competition Tuesday, May 30 Contents Thank You to Our Sponsors 2 Schedule Preliminaries Test 8:30 a.m. — 9:30 a.m. | Maryland Ballroom Spellebrity Video Contest Finalists 3 All spellers will participate in this multiple choice test. Contest Rules 4 Wednesday, May 31 Journey to the Trophy 8 Preliminaries: Round Two Live on ESPN3 8:00 a.m. — 12:15 p.m. | Maryland Ballroom 20 Questions 10 • Spellers 1 through 145 spell onstage between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. • Spellers 146 through 291 spell onstage between 10:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Get to Know the 90th Class of National Finalists 14 90 Years? Preliminaries: Round Three Live on ESPN3 Champions and Their Winning Words 16 Your math is weird! 1:15 p.m. — 6:00 p.m. | Maryland Ballroom Actually, the Bee • Spellers 1 through 145 spell onstage between 1:15 and 3:30 p.m. wasn’t held from 1943 Celebrating 90 Years of the National Spelling Bee 18 through 1945, so this is • Spellers 146 through 291 spell onstage between 3:45 and 5:00 p.m. our 90th competition. Learn more here! Prizes 20 Announcement of Finalists Approximately 6:00 p.m. | Maryland Ballroom Spellers and Sponsors 21 Leadership and Year-Round Staff 34 Thursday, June 1 Officials and College Crew 35 Finals: Live on ESPN2 Beginning at 10:00 a.m. | Maryland Ballroom Bee Week Staff 36 Tiebreaker Test Beginning at 6:00 p.m. | Camellia 3 Finals: Live on ESPN Pre-Broadcast Program Beginning at 7:30 p.m. | Maryland Ballroom The live broadcast will begin at 8:30 p.m. Follow Us! All Wednesday times (except for the start of Round Two) are approximate and may vary by up to an hour. spellingbee.com /ScrippsNational /ScrippsBee /ScrippsBee /ScrippsNational /ScrippsBee SpellingBee SpellingBee #spellingbee #spellingbee The first national spelling bee was held in 1925. 1926 Television Find our official photos at flickr.com/ScrippsBee. That means the Bee is older than... 90 YEARS 2 3 This year, the Bee and Kindle sponsored the second Spellebrity Video Contest, Thank You to Our Sponsors an opportunity for students to create short, fun videos that inspire others to “Kindle the love of reading.” On Tuesday, May 29, spellers will attend the Spellebrity Video Contest Premiere to watch the Finalist videos, ask questions of the filmmakers, and receive their ballots to cast a vote for the Champion video! The Scripps National Spelling Bee is only possible through the support of our sponsors and supporters. Join us for the Spellebrity Video Contest Premiere in the Maryland Ballroom on Tuesday, May 29, at 7:00 p.m. Before our national finalists were great spellers, they were great readers. The Scripps National The following five teams were declared Finalists following a public voting period, and each team received an expenses-paid trip to the Spelling Bee and Kindle share a love of letters, words and reading. Now, with Kindle as the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee. presenting sponsor of the Bee, two internationally recognized brands are working together to Bigham Yago Bryn with a Bee Kindle Cousins Team Champion The Fab Four Valencia, California Lawrence, Kansas Oneonta, New York Chandler, Arizona Cedar Park, Texas spark a love of reading and foster an appreciation of the power of words. Rio Norte Junior High Southwest Oneonta Middle School Champion Chandler Westside School and Tesoro del Middle School Charter School Elementary School Orem, Utah Valle Elementary School and Kyrene Over the coming year, the Bee and Kindle will work together to deepen the learning Windsor Traditional Academy Elementary School experience for all spellers. Starting at the classroom level of competition, the 11 million Salt Lake City, Utah students who participate in the Bee each year will have the opportunity to study from a Evergreen Junior High School and Highland Park list of words found in exciting and inspiring Kindle titles: what we call our “Great Words, Elementary School Great Works” reading list. Kindle features like Kindle FreeTime and Word Wise, which automatically provides short and simple definitions above difficult words, encourage students to read more challenging books with fewer interruptions and introduce them to new worlds of spelling and vocabulary words. The Bee thanks Kindle for generously supporting our program at every level, from classroom to Finals. We are proud to celebrate our presenting sponsor this Bee Week, as we join in celebrating the enormous talents of our champion spellers. Kindle joins a growing number of companies that show their enthusiasm for education by supporting the Bee, including Merriam-Webster, Encyclopædia Britannica and Bananagrams. And our local sponsors are the lifeblood of the Bee. There are more than 270 organizations that administer local spelling bees. All of our local sponsors are listed in the Spellers and Sponsors section, which 1957 2014 Spellers with Ed Sullivan Spellers with Jimmy Kimmel starts on page 22. The Bee is older than... 1927 1928 1929 90 YEARS Sliced bread Bubble gum Sunglasses 4 5 Contest Rules Rule 1: Eligibility (13) The speller, upon qualifying for the Bee, must submit a completed online Champion Registration form, a signed A speller qualifying for the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee Appearance Consent and Release Agreement, a signed (the Bee) must meet these requirements: Certification of Eligibility Form, a signed General Liability Waiver, (1) The speller must not previously have been declared champion and a photo to the Bee. The speller will notify the Bee, at least 24 of the Bee. hours prior to the first day of competition, if any of the statements (2) The speller must attend a school that is officially enrolledwith made on the Certification of Eligibility Form are no longer true or the Bee. require updating. (3) The speller must not have passed beyond the eighth grade on The Bee may disqualify prior to or during competition any or before February 1, 2017. speller who is not in compliance with any of the above Eligibility (4) The speller must not have repeated any grade for the purpose Requirements; and it may — at any time between the conclusion of extending spelling bee eligibility. If the speller has repeated of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee and April 30, 2018 — any grade, the speller must notify the Bee of the circumstances require any speller who is found to have not been in compliance of grade repetition by April 18, 2017 and the Beewill, in its sole with any of the Eligibility Requirements to forfeit any prizes, discretion, determine the speller’s eligibility status on or before rank and other benefits accorded to the speller as a result of April 30, 2017. participation in the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee. (5) The speller — or the speller’s parent, legal guardian or school official acting on the speller’s behalf — must not have declared to Rule 2: Preliminaries Format another entity an academic classification higher than eighthade gr The Preliminaries takes place on May 30 and 31 and is the first of for any purpose including high school graduation equivalency or two distinct segments of the competition, Preliminaries and Finals. proficiency examinations and/or examinations such as the PSAT, SAT or ACT. The Preliminaries consists of a test with written spelling items and multiple choice vocabulary items (Preliminaries Test) administered (6) The speller must not have earned the legal equivalent of a high school diploma. Tuesday, May 30, at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and two rounds of oral spelling onstage on Wednesday, May 31, between the hours of (7) The speller must not have completed nor ever been enrolled 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. EDT. Spellers may earn up to 36 points in more than six high school-level courses or two college-level during the Preliminaries: up to 30 points on the Preliminaries Test, courses on or before April 30, 2017. three points for correctly spelling in Round Two and three points (8) The speller must not bypass or circumvent normal school for correctly spelling in Round Three. activity to study for spelling bees.