Chandler Prep 8th Grader Wins Great Hearts Arizona Spelling Bee

14 Great Hearts scholars from Arizona came together to compete in the 2026 Great Hearts Arizona Spelling Bee. Each student, ranging from 3^rd to 8^th graders, had individually won their school-level spelling competitions and came to represent their schools in this Championship Bee. After successfully spelling the word, illicitly, eighth grader Rebecca Smith from Chandler Prep was declared the champion, with Jeremy Nguyen, a 7^th grader from Trivium Prep coming in as the runner-up.

“I love like the etymologies of words and at school. I take a Latin class, and I really love Latin,” shared Smith. “There’s a lot of Latin and Greek words that make up the English language, so if I ask for a language of origin, it’s easier for me to tell what the word is and how it’s spelled.” Aside from her love of language and words, Smith said she also used an app to study and prepare.

This is the second year in a row that a scholar from Chandler Prep has won the Spelling Bee. Last year, Shriya Bhardwaj with the word, troika. Smith said Bhardwaj’s win was an inspiration to her. “And that thought motivated me too a little bit because I thought that if another eighth grader from [Chandler Prep] can do it, then maybe I can.”

Knowing this was the last year she would be eligible to participate in the Spelling Bee, Smith was a little worried that she would be competing with other students who may be better spellers, but her mother reminded her that with her excellent education at Chandler Prep, an academy that had been ranked the top 6-12 school in Arizona, she had a really good chance of making it through. And Smith did indeed prove her mother right. “When he said illicitly, I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I know this word! I’m going to win, as long as I don’t go too fast and slip up.”

But the word that made her a champion wasn’t the word that most challenged her that night. The word was welterweight. This unfamiliar word to many, including Smith, and may be best known to fans of sports like boxing. (It is a weight class in combat sports, typically for athletes weighing around 140-147 pounds, bridging lightweight and middleweight divisions.) “Never even studied that word, somehow,” she said. “It must have slipped my mind somehow. But the fact that it gave me so much trouble, but then the relief from knowing that I got it right. That was really a climactic moment.”

Congratulations to Rebecca for earning the title of 2026 Great Hearts Spelling Bee Champion and we will continue to cheer her on as she represents Great Hearts in the next round, the Regional Spelling Bee, with the potential to move onto the Arizona State Spelling Bee and ultimately the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

We also want to congratulate and recognize the achievements and efforts of all the spellers who represented their schools at the competition:

• Phoebe Kantartzis, 4^th grader at Archway Chandler
• Jeremy Nguyen, 7^th grader at Trivium Prep
• Grace Lynas, 8^th grader at Great Hearts Anthem
• Rebecca Smith, 8^th grader at Chandler Prep
• Clare Holmes, 8^th grader at Scottsdale Prep
• Ethan Akinwande, 3^rd grader at Archway Cicero
• Emiliano Sosa-Salgado, 8^th grader at Maryvale Prep
• Leah Hernandez, 5^th grader at Great Hearts Online
• Declan Edgar, 4^th grader at Archway Lincoln
• Nolan Kay, 3^rd grader at Archway Arete
• Baron Hall, 4^th grader at Great Hearts Roosevelt
• Winston Marvin, 5^th grader at Archway Veritas
• Mikayla Grace Torres, 5^th grader at Archway Trivium
• Nathan Kirchheimer, 5^th grader at Archway North Phoenix

You can watch the 2026 Great Hearts Spelling Bee in its entirety below:

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