NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.-Tuesday, a prestigious 6th grader from the Heber Valley will commence his journey toward spelling glory as a competitor at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Henry Iverson of Midway, a 6th grade student at Rocky Mountain Middle School, will be representing Utah as the 421st ranked speller in the country out of 519 contestants.
He received the invitation to the Scripps Bee by besting 41 students at the Park Record Spelling Bee in March at Park City.
Henry and his mother, Jenny Iverson, have meticulously studied for this event and Jenny says “sometimes, my husband and I will race to see who can get things done at night to be able to spell with him.”
Henry says he relaxes his nerves in preparation for this event by going through his list of 600 words to study.
Should he advance past the second round of this event, the words will no longer derive from the prototypical 600 words list, but could be anything stemming from the unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Therefore, Henry also spends time studying from “Merriam-Webster’s Vocabulary Builder.”
The bee will run through Thursday.
