Wasatch Jr. High student moonlights as City Journals Jr. Writer
Rain Wang's Jr. Press Badge gave him exclusive access to all parts of the Great Northern Spelling Bee.
“Peremptorily” means “to end,” and Roshan Kaushik certainly did that at the 2025 Greater Northern Utah Spelling Bee. Roshan spelled the word correctly to claim first place at the bee. On March 15, 142 competitors representing one hundred schools across Utah gathered at Wasatch Jr. High in Salt Lake City to participate in the Regional Spelling Bee hosted by the City Journals. Roshan earned a ticket to the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Wasatch has hosted the regional bee for two years. The system is on a rotation, visiting different schools in different years. Wasatch Jr. High vice principal Renee Dehaan helped coordinate the bee.
“I think it’s a great thing for the kids,” she said. ‘It’s amazing how they can memorize things and recite it on stage. I myself competed in some bees when I was a child.”
The bee starts off with a written test, in which all spellers are required to correctly spell five rigorous words. Then, they each were given the chance to verbally spell one word on stage. All spellers scoring four or more correctly moved on to the next round. The first round of spelling lasted for almost two hours, but a very exciting two hours at that. In the second round, many people were eliminated, going from 19 competitors to just seven in the first set of words. Then, the top five battled it out.
Eventually, first-place competitor Roshan Kaushik spelled “peremptorily” right to seal the deal and bring home the win. He is in the seventh grade at Challenger Traverse Mountain in Lehi. Asking Roshan what inspired him to compete in the spelling bee, he replied, “When I was younger, I watched the National Spelling Bee on television, so that inspired me a lot to do it. [Dealing with the pressure onstage], mostly just taking deep breaths, you know, calm yourself, like even if I got it wrong, don’t lose hope.”
Runner-up to Kaushik in this year’s state spelling bee was Uuganbayar Tserendember from Beehive STEM Academy. He missed out on the spot to go to the Scripps Spelling Bee after misspelling multiple championship words. However, it was close all the way through.
American Preparatory Academy Draper’s Samhita Kapu claimed third place at the bee. She is in just the third grade, and her older brother is Surya Kapu, who has appeared in the national bee twice previously.
City Journals sponsors the annual Greater Northern Utah Spelling Bee. Bryan Scott, owner and publisher of the City Journals, said, “It’s really good for the kids, and it’s amazing that they can do this much.”
In addition, Elizabeth Sweat, People Leader at the City Journals, agreed, “I think it’s a great program for the competitors because they can develop their brains. It’s also a good opportunity for them to showcase their skills they’ve been working for.”
Dale Dimond, a City Journals volunteer, stated, “I’m really excited for all these people who have put in so much time to be in the bee, and I know they’ve worked a lot on this, and I love to be a part of it!”
Another City Journals volunteer, Rebecca Olds, said, “I’m here because it’s so fun to see the kids compete, and it’s a big deal, because they’ve put in lots of work, but also that they get to compete in the national competition.”
The pronouncer for the competition was Thad Chailam. Judges included Julie Powell, Ronald Squire, Wayne Rust and Peri Kinder.
Though the bee was ultimately won by a 7th grader, it was a battle between all ages. Second and third-place finishers were in elementary school, and many times matched Roshan. Next year, the bee could look very exciting!
