New Milford Students Reach Final Rounds in Spelling Bee

Jennie Shih, a student at Bertram Gibbs Elementary School made it to Round 3, while Nikita Dsouza, a student at David E. Owens Middle School, made it to Round 4 at the North Jersey Spelling Bee at  on Thursday.

Shih made it to the third round before misspelling the word Fusillade and Dsouza made it to the fourth round before misspelling the word Sepia.

Shih and Dsouza were among the 32 finalists at the North Jersey Spelling Bee. A student from Haverstraw Middle School, Sanjana Mohan Malla, won the competition, spelling "tromometer," an instrument used for measuring or detecting minute earth tremors, according to Merriam-Webster.

She received a laptop, a $1,000 scholarship and advanced to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

The competition was the 75th annual North Jersey Spelling Bee. To celebrate, Mauro Castano of Cake Boss wheeled in a cake decorated with all the winning words from each year and topped with a bumblebee.

A camera crew was on hand to film the bee as part of a Cake Boss episode.

The first winner of the North Jersey Spelling Bee, Margaret Karle Schak, was also on hand. Schak met President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after winning the spelling bee in 1935, and went on to become the first woman mayor of Rutherford.
"This original spelling be experience gave me confidence in my life," she told the students.