2008 Woodie Awards
Minds Collide at Spelling Challenge
The Spelling Challeng: Not Just For Nerds and Geeks Anymore!
Douglas McIntyre
Issue date: 10/7/04 Section: Feature
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It is 7:45 on the night of the 3rd annual spelling challenge. All of the people running the event are rushing about the Student Center cafeteria getting everything ready. Krista Schlomann, a senior English major, sits by herself and waits for her partner, Dana Mannine, also a senior.
In the back of the room, Kate Burke, a sophomore, was hoping for one of two people to show up as her partner. Out of 29 teams that came to participate in the event, six of them had previously registered.
Like most of the teams, Burke was hoping to register directly before the event. "My roommate is one of the people running it," Burke said. "I came last year and it was really fun, so I came again."
Near the doors we find two freshmen, Kalin Macon and his teammate Jason Scarcella. Macon said, "I saw it on the sidewalk in chalk. I have to do an event for Freshman Experience, so this is it." He and Scarcella are in the same Freshman Experience class.
As everything was coming together, Ed Gesumaria, a transfer student, walks up and down the room, commenting that it was "not a bad turnout...bigger than last year." Gesumaria was one of the runners. Each team wrote the words down, and the runners took them to the scorers to be tallied.
Amazingly, in all the chaos, Christine Dias, a junior, had the time to talk about the Rec. Board, who put this event together.
She is the president of Rec. Board, which "does events like this to keep students busy on a weeknight, to get them involved, and get to know each other," Dias said.
Her job tonight is to oversee the event and make sure it runs smoothly. The event was put together by four students on the Rec. Board: Carolyn Garrone, Jesse Szymanski, Jamie Dresher, and Meghan Mortan.
Just before the Spelling Challenge began, Burke found a partner, sophomore Jessica Conlin, who came without a teammate and hoping someone else would have done the same. Together, they made up team #21. Schlomann and Mannine were team #14, and Macon and Scarcella were team #18.
At 8:20 p.m., the hosts took the stage. Steve Smith, the Director of Student Recreation, made introductions and Drew Stevens, a member of the Rec. Board, read off the instructions.
The words would only be read twice, along with a definition or some fact about the word. For example, the first word was 'wisteria', a member of the purple family and introduced in 1993.
The words came in categories. Macon's partner Scarcella selected the category Crayola for the second word. Unfortunately, they misspelled their word, which was 'sepia'. Another category was Famous Bowlers, which was selected for the fourth word. Macon's attempt at the name Justin Romech, but his name was actually spelled H-r-o-m-e-c-k.
Just after the third word was played, they began the toss-up rounds. In each of these, a definition was read, and anyone in the room, player or not, could guess at what the word
In the back of the room, Kate Burke, a sophomore, was hoping for one of two people to show up as her partner. Out of 29 teams that came to participate in the event, six of them had previously registered.
Like most of the teams, Burke was hoping to register directly before the event. "My roommate is one of the people running it," Burke said. "I came last year and it was really fun, so I came again."
Near the doors we find two freshmen, Kalin Macon and his teammate Jason Scarcella. Macon said, "I saw it on the sidewalk in chalk. I have to do an event for Freshman Experience, so this is it." He and Scarcella are in the same Freshman Experience class.
As everything was coming together, Ed Gesumaria, a transfer student, walks up and down the room, commenting that it was "not a bad turnout...bigger than last year." Gesumaria was one of the runners. Each team wrote the words down, and the runners took them to the scorers to be tallied.
Amazingly, in all the chaos, Christine Dias, a junior, had the time to talk about the Rec. Board, who put this event together.
She is the president of Rec. Board, which "does events like this to keep students busy on a weeknight, to get them involved, and get to know each other," Dias said.
Her job tonight is to oversee the event and make sure it runs smoothly. The event was put together by four students on the Rec. Board: Carolyn Garrone, Jesse Szymanski, Jamie Dresher, and Meghan Mortan.
Just before the Spelling Challenge began, Burke found a partner, sophomore Jessica Conlin, who came without a teammate and hoping someone else would have done the same. Together, they made up team #21. Schlomann and Mannine were team #14, and Macon and Scarcella were team #18.
At 8:20 p.m., the hosts took the stage. Steve Smith, the Director of Student Recreation, made introductions and Drew Stevens, a member of the Rec. Board, read off the instructions.
The words would only be read twice, along with a definition or some fact about the word. For example, the first word was 'wisteria', a member of the purple family and introduced in 1993.
The words came in categories. Macon's partner Scarcella selected the category Crayola for the second word. Unfortunately, they misspelled their word, which was 'sepia'. Another category was Famous Bowlers, which was selected for the fourth word. Macon's attempt at the name Justin Romech, but his name was actually spelled H-r-o-m-e-c-k.
Just after the third word was played, they began the toss-up rounds. In each of these, a definition was read, and anyone in the room, player or not, could guess at what the word