Modesto junior high students’ mastery of non-hieroglyphical spelling wins the day

Eighth-graders Ashley Cabral of La Loma Junior High School and Arya Gandhi of Prescott Junior High will head to the state spelling championship after finishing at the top of the Stanislaus County Junior High Spelling Championship.

La Loma is in the Modesto City Schools District and Prescott, in north Modesto, is in the Stanislaus Union School District. Prescott Junior High eighth-grader Martin Shewfelt will serve as an alternate to the state event in May.

Words the champions had to spell included egalitarian, hieroglyphical and ubiquitous.

The contest, sponsored by the Stanislaus County Office of Education, was held Tuesday in Modesto. Retired educator Harry Bakker served as spelling master and 22 volunteers served as proctors. Some 45 students from 22 schools participated in the event.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Modesto junior high students’ mastery of non-hieroglyphical spelling wins the day."