A Briarcrest Christian School (BCS) student from Lakeland, Taylor Kearbey, has qualified to be in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this spring in Washington, DC.
The Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 291 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Ghana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
She is the daughter of Tara and Jeff Kearbey of Lakeland.
Mrs. Kearbey said Taylor is an eighth grader at BCS and won the school spelling bee in November. “This win allowed her, along with other school winners from West and Middle Tennessee, to take an online spelling and vocabulary test given by Scripps. The top 70 spellers from this test then competed in the Tennessee Titans Regional Spelling Bee. Taylor advanced to the Regional Spelling Bee in Nashville in March. She placed in the top 26.”
In fifth grade, Taylor represented Lakeland Elementary School in the Shelby County Spelling Bee, which was discontinued this year. “In sixth and seventh grades, she represented Briarcrest Middle School in the Shelby County Spelling Bee, tying for fourth place in seventh grade,” said Mrs. Kearbey.
Taylor advances to the National Bee through a new program called RSVBee. “After winning her school spelling bee, she applied for the RSVBee program in December. On March 26, we received an email stating they had received over 635 applications for the RSVBee program, and Taylor was one of the 225 invited to compete in the National Finals. The finals are May 27-June 1 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, DC.
The new program, RSVBee, allows students who have earned champion status to participate in Bee Week. Only 225 students are accepted. With 635 entered this year, the applicants were screened on a point system relating to their grade in school and if they had been a Bee semi-finalist or finalist or Bee Week Preliminaries participant.
