Schools

Montrose School's Molly Cahill Competes in Scripps National Spelling Bee

Molly Cahill, an eighth grader at Montrose School in Medfield and Taunton resident, participated in the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee this week in Washington D.C.

Molly Cahill, an eighth grader at in Medfield, was speller 114 in the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee, held this week in Washington D.C., competing through the third round.

Cahill, 14, incorrectly spelled "kaiserdom" – spelling it "keizerdom" in round two but rebounded in round three by correctly spelling "commissar." Cahill did not advance past round three and despite the early exit, it was an accomplishment in itself for the Montrose School eighth grader to compete in the National Spelling Bee, televised on ESPN.

To qualify for the trip to Washington D.C., Cahill defeated 25 fellow South Shore students, including first runner up and last year's winner, Surabhi Iyer from Franklin and second runner up Matthew Donahue from Kingston in the . Cahill correctly spelled the word “evanesce” to win the bee to advance to the National Spelling Bee.

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The Scripps National Spelling Bee website offers the following profile of Cahill:

"Molly’s interests include singing, acting, dancing and performing on stage. To feed this passion, she is involved in musical theater both in and out of school, and she was nominated for a regional acting award this past summer. Molly participates in student government as president of her eighth grade class. She won the school science fair in sixth grade and then went on to place third at the regional competition. Molly has received several medals and honorable mentions for essay and poster contests outside of school. She excels in history and English, and she hopes to be a pediatrician. Molly’s role model is her grandmother, whose strength, success and fun spirit she would like to emulate."

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Molly's mother, Julie Cahill, said her daughter has always shown interest reading.

“She has always loved to read, which I think helps all kids with their spelling,” she said.

About the Scripps National Spelling Bee

  • Cahill was one of 278 spellers from the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Europe; as well as the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea to compete in the bee.
  • The spellers range in age from 6 to 15 years old, but 84 percent are between the ages of 12 and 14 years old. Cahill is 14.
  • This year's group of competitors is 48.9 percent boys and 51.1 percent girls.
  • The spellers' favorite words include cwm, serendipity and humuhumunukunukuapuaa.


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