PRICE, Utah — A seventh-grade student from Utah is set to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and she is no stranger to the Bee.
Ashley Bryner is a student at Mont Harmon Middle School. While this will be her first time competing at the Bee, it won’t be her first time attending the event. Bryner’s older siblings advanced to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., and Ashley watched as a spectator.
“They inspired me because I just saw their hard work, and it was interesting to see how much time they put in, and it made me feel motivated to do it because I knew if they could do it, I could do it as well,” she said.
Being the younger sister, Ashley has the unique opportunity to get advice from her siblings who have been there before. “A lot of times they say study root words because different words mean different things,” Ashley said. “They can help you spell it and learn different tricks that different languages have.”
Ashley, who also enjoys playing softball and the piano, finds the time to study words more than an hour a day. “When I am not studying, I feel bad because that five minutes could help me determine if I get that one word,” she explained.
Practice, she believes, will help her compete against some of the best young minds in the nation. “Once I started to feel confident, I was less nervous and spelled my words better,” she said.
