KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

For many stu­dents in­side the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA) last Wednes­day, the pres­sure was not just about spelling dif­fi­cult words. It was about prov­ing months of prepa­ra­tion, dis­ci­pline and con­fi­dence un­der the bright lights of a na­tion­al stage.

The MIND­STAR Na­tion­al Spelling Bee and Tech Park 2026 Grand Fi­nals brought to­geth­er some of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s top young spellers in a com­pe­ti­tion or­gan­is­ers say con­tin­ues to grow in reach and pres­tige across the coun­try.

Ap­proved by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and or­gan­ised by AL Williams Ed­u­ca­tion­al Ser­vices and Con­sul­tan­cy, the event fea­tured con­tes­tants from pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools across T&T com­pet­ing be­fore an au­di­ence of par­ents, prin­ci­pals, teach­ers and sup­port­ers.

In­side the au­di­to­ri­um, con­tes­tants stood poised be­hind mi­cro­phones as cham­pi­onship-lev­el words test­ed not on­ly their vo­cab­u­lary, but al­so their fo­cus un­der pres­sure.

With each cor­rect an­swer, ap­plause echoed through the venue as proud par­ents and teach­ers watched stu­dents bat­tle through tense elim­i­na­tion rounds.

In the pri­ma­ry di­vi­sion, Se­bastien Ho­sein of the Home­school As­so­ci­a­tion cap­tured first place in the Stan­dard One cat­e­go­ry ahead of Zi­dane Ram­sook of Canaan Pres­by­ter­ian and Esabel­la Flem­ing of St Mary’s Mu­cu­rapo Girls’ RC.

Devin Ab­erdeen of St Mar­tin de Por­res, Morne Di­a­ble RC se­cured the top spot in the Stan­dards Two and Three cat­e­go­ry, while Abi­gail Coutou of San­ta Flo­ra Gov­ern­ment and Re­bec­c­ah Lutch­man of Canaan Pres­by­ter­ian placed sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly.

Matthew Dodoll con­tin­ued Canaan Pres­by­ter­ian’s strong show­ing by win­ning the Stan­dards Four and Five cat­e­go­ry.

Sama­ra Man­ickc­hand of Win­der­mere Pri­vate School fin­ished sec­ond, while Alay­na Su­per­sad of Mon­key Town Gov­ern­ment placed third.

At the sec­ondary lev­el, Khylie Charles of Bish­op’s High School, To­ba­go, emerged vic­to­ri­ous in the Forms One and Two cat­e­go­ry ahead of Jeni­ka George of Holy Faith Con­vent, Pe­nal, and Ariel Ram­path of Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School.

Calipha Hare­wood of St Mary’s Col­lege claimed first place in the Forms Three and Four di­vi­sion, while Arisa Ra­jan of Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School and Mick­ea Kan­hai of Holy Faith Con­vent Pe­nal se­cured sec­ond and third places.

In the se­nior sec­ondary cat­e­go­ry, Molique Noel of Point Fortin East Sec­ondary School cap­tured the Forms Five and Six ti­tle, de­feat­ing Nathanael Sony­lal of Vish­nu Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege and Sirhansel Mar­celle of Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary School.

Be­yond the com­pe­ti­tion it­self, the at­mos­phere in­side SAPA re­flect­ed strong ca­ma­raderie among par­tic­i­pants, with stu­dents en­cour­ag­ing and sup­port­ing one an­oth­er be­tween rounds de­spite the in­tense com­pe­ti­tion.

Or­gan­is­ers said the pro­gramme has grown steadi­ly over the years, with stu­dents ad­vanc­ing through pre­lim­i­nary rounds and se­mi-fi­nals be­fore earn­ing places in the na­tion­al fi­nals.

The event al­so drew sup­port from sev­er­al cor­po­rate en­ti­ties, in­clud­ing Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion and SM Jaleel, as well as oth­er spon­sors back­ing ed­u­ca­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and youth achieve­ment.

Spe­cial recog­ni­tion was al­so giv­en to head judge Sharom Phillip and se­nior judges Pa­tri­cia Au­guste and De­vi Ram­s­ingh for over­see­ing the com­pe­ti­tion and main­tain­ing its stan­dards.

Or­gan­is­ers said the MIND­STAR Na­tion­al Spelling Bee and Tech Park con­tin­ues to es­tab­lish it­self as one of the coun­try’s lead­ing ed­u­ca­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions fo­cused on lit­er­a­cy, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lead­er­ship and aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence among young peo­ple.