Roxbury 8th grader Sapna Malhotra, who attends the John Eliot K-8 in the North End, took home top honors in in the 17th annual citywide spelling bee held on March 15 in Rabb Hall at the Copley Library. She won by correctly spelling “Senecio,” a collection of species in the daisy family.
Sapna will now go on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. in May.  

More than 3,000 students from Boston’s public and parochial schools competed in local spelling bees to qualify for the Boston Center for Youth and Families (BCYF) Citywide Bee. Three competitors from Dorchester and Mattapan participated in the final round of competition involving 24 spellers citywide.

Trinity Mayers, a Dorchester 6th grader Edward Brooke Charter School Mattapan; Aria Phillips, a Mattapan 3rd grader from KIPP Academy Boston; and Brendan Nguyen, a Dorchester 6th grader from the Richard J. Murphy K-8 School.

The Bee was hosted by the Boston Center for Youth and Families and sponsored by the Boston Bruins Foundation.