Seventeen Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) students have advanced to the Georgia Association of Educators Regional 3 Spelling Bee. The event will take place Saturday, February 22, at 10 a.m. at the Barrow County School System District Office, located at 179 W. Athens Street in Winder, Ga. The students qualified for the regional spelling bee after competing in the GCPS Spelling Bee earlier this month. The top performers from the regional competition will move forward to the state-level spelling bee, bringing them one step closer to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

     Last fall, students from 60 GCPS schools in grades 3-8 showcased their spelling skills in school-level competitions. Each school winner then participated in a virtual spelling and vocabulary competition, narrowing the field to 20 students who competed at the county level.

     This year’s group of outstanding spellers are listed as follows:

• Arcado Elementary School: Zoey Lan
   
• Baldwin Elementary School: Andrew Nguyen
   
• Berkmar Middle School: Cayden Liang***
   
• Coleman Middle School: Shaurya Shinde
   
• Couch Middle School: Ibrahim Salah
   
• Craig Elementary School: Omeo Haque**
   
• Crews Middle School: Heer Kalaria
   
• Dacula Middle School: Mazin Elbadri
   
• Five Forks Middle School: Piper May
   
• Grayson Elementary School: Kwabena Asante
   
• McConnell Middle School: Bree Perry
   
• Minor Elementary School: Cayleen Liang
   
• North Gwinnett Middle School: Samson Paulos
   
• Osborne Middle School: Aiden Hughes
   
• Suwanee Elementary School: Emilia Toshev
   
• Sweetwater Middle School: Cruz Lam
   
• Trickum Middle School: Noah Cohen

*** = Winner of Spelling Bee

** = Runner up