Puerto Vallarta Spells T-R-I-U-M-P-H Local Student Wins National Competition

A group of students from private school Instituto S.P.A.C., upon invitation from the newly formed MEXTESOL Jalisco Occidente Chapter, traveled to Mexico City on April 10th to take part in the National round of Global SpellEvent, a spelling bee competition sponsored by Franklin Electronic Publishers de México, TESOL and the Mexican Association of Teachers to Speakers of Other Languages MEXTESOL. The competition, running for the third consecutive year, is open to students of English as a Foreign Language under 15 years of age and was held at the Flamingos Radisson Hotel in Mexico City.

Puerto Vallarta was represented by Olga Itzel Garay, Mildred Jiménez, Frida García, José Alberto Peralta and Bruno Rodríguez, all under the direct supervision and mentoring of Miss Gloria Montiel, whose expert coaching hand could be seen in the preparation of her students.

A total of 44 teenagers from some of the most renowned schools in the country faced off in a very exciting competition.

It soon became evident that the ISPAC students were a force to be reckoned with and after three rounds and 24 eliminations, all five of them were still in the running.

Effort, preparation and team work carried four of them onto the top eight and eventually Olga Itzel Garay de la Rosa and José Alberto Peralta took first and second place.

Olga Itzel and José Alberto were congratulated by TESOL officials and event judges John Segoda and Barry Pilson, as well as National MEXTESOL president María Trapero Dávila.

In addition to the trophy, diplomas and prizes that she received as the winner, Olga Itzel will be representing Mexico in the Global SpellEvent in New York City on August 17th, 2011, along with the representatives of 14 other countries. She has quite a high bar to beat as Mexico’s last year competitor brought home the second place worldwide. Keep up the hard work, Olga Itzel and Miss Montiel!!

Jalisco Occidente chapter president said she hopes more schools in Puerto Vallarta will take advantage of the many opportunities MEXTESOL offers both teachers and students.