Amy Holdsman—Ms. Holdsman is the Executive Director of the White-Williams Scholars program.  She manages and builds White-Williams Scholars in accordance with its mission which is to support high academic achievement by Philadelphia public high school students of limited financial resources.  She oversees the entire program and makes policy recommendations for all aspects of the agency.  She nurtures relations with the Board of Trustees as well as with current and potential funding sources and the schools.  She directs the program’s staff, public relations, and other outreach activities.  She is a graduate of Temple University, M.A., Urban Studies  and George Washington University, B.A., Journalism.  Ms. Holdsman is a former pronouncer of the Philadelphia Tribune/Scripps Howard Regional Spelling Bee competition.

 Hortense LeVere—Ms. LeVere has built her career instructing youth as well as adults.  A Tuskegee University graduate, Ms. LeVere was involved as a reading specialist and a tutor at several area charter schools.  As a career advisor, she taught resume writing, basic computer skills, professional ethics, behavior and administered testing at the Transitional Work Corporation.  Currently, she resides in Philadelphia.

Joyce R. Williams— Ms. Williams is the Manager of Community Outreach and Education for Independence Blue Cross.  Educated in the Philadelphia School System, Joyce graduated from South Philadelphia High School and matriculated at Cheyney State College, Berlitz School of Languages and Rosemont College where she majored in Spanish/Secondary Education & Business Communication (BA).   Some of her civic activities and board affiliations include: mentoring to teenage girls, board member of the Metropolitan Career Center, the Urban League of Philadelphia, and Concerned Black Men.  She is the Co-founder of the C.A.S.H. (Children Accustomed to Saving Habitually) program.

The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is an educational promotion sponsored by E. W. Scripps Company in conjunction with approximately 240 newspapers and other authorized sponsors in the United States, Guam, Mexico, the U. S. Virgin Islands, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and American Samoa.

This year marks the 80th Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.  The Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal started the event as a national competition with nine contestants in 1925.  In 1941, Scripps Howard acquired the rights to the program.  There was no Scripps Spelling Bee during the World War II years of 1943, 1944, and 1945.  The 2007 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee will involve more than ten million students at the local level and over 240 national finalists.

The program takes place on two levels: local and national.  Authorized sponsors organize programs in their locales, often in cooperation with educators, business and community organizations.  These sponsors send their champions to the national finals. The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee office, operating year-round out of the E. W. Scripps Company corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, coordinates the national program.

The program is designed to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all of their lives.

Students who have not reached their 16th birthday on or before the date of the national finals, and who have not passed beyond the eighth grade at the point of their school finals are eligible to compete.

Each contestant at the national finals is the champion of his/her sponsor’s final spelling bee.  In most areas, students qualify for the sponsor’s final spelling bee by winning preliminary competitions that include a combination of classroom, grade level, school, school district, and county spelling bees.

The Philadelphia Tribune is the Philadelphia Regional sponsor for the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee.  This is the sixth year that Independence Blue Cross is participating as the sponsor of the competition.  

Every fall, The Philadelphia Tribune receives registration forms from public, private, charter, parochial and home schools that wish to participate in the Fifth Grade Spelldown and/or the Citywide Competition.  Each school has the option of selecting one school bee champion from the fifth grade to compete in the Fifth Grade Spelldown, and one representative from the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade to compete in the Citywide Bee.

The Fifth Grade Spelldown is a preliminary elimination competition that provides fifth grade students with the opportunity to compete for a chance to participate in the regional competition.  The top five fifth grade students who emerge from this competition will join the other 6th, 7th, and 8th grade school winners to vie for the title of regional champion.  The regional champion will advance to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, held at the end of May in Washington, D.C.  The Tribune and Independence Blue Cross are underwriting the entire cost, including accommodations for the regional champion and an escort to attend the national competition.

The Philadelphia Tribune/Scripps Howard Fifth Grade Competition will be an oral competition conducted in rounds until five spellers remain.  The last five spellers will proceed on to the Regional Bee directly following the fifth grade elimination.

The speller will approach the microphone when it is his or her turn to spell a word.  After the pronouncer gives the speller a word, the speller is encouraged to pronounce the word before and after spelling it.  The speller may ask the pronouncer to say the word again, define it, use it in a sentence, provide the part of speech, and/or provide the language of origin.  Having started to spell a word, a speller may stop and start over, retracing the spelling from the beginning.  In retracing, however, there can be no change of letters or their sequence from those first pronounced.  A speller who correctly spells his/her word stays seated on the stage and waits for the next round.

When a speller misspells a word, a judge will ring the bell and the pronouncer will give the correct spelling of the word.  A member of the staff will escort the speller from the stage to reserved audience seating.

There is no ironclad time limit for contemplating a word at the microphone; the judges may determine if a speller has delayed spelling too long and can ask him/her to start spelling.  The sole authority for the spelling of all words is Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.  Words for this spelling bee have been taken from the “Sponsors Bee Guide.”

Rules for Regional Bee ONLY (in addition to the above) Please refer to the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Suggested Rules for Local Spelling Bees, page 3 of 4, #10 for End-of-bee procedure.