Fernanda Arnay is looking forward today to a trip to Washington, D.C., in June

after she was declared the spelling champ Thursday, March 4 at the 12th annual Lee County Spelling Bee. In Washington, she will compete with winners of spelling bees from across the nation.

A student at Varsity Lakes Middle School in Lehigh in the eighth grade, Arnay

didn’t have any problems when the words were called out to her on the stage at Three Oaks Middle School in San Carlos Park.

The word that put her over the top was “punctual,” and she said she gave it a

thought and then spelled the word out letter to letter and the judges declared she was the winner.

She is the daughter of Alison and Frank Meyer of Fort Myers.

“My mom was with me and when it was all over, she had a great smile and came

running to me congratulating me,” she said.

When she was declared the winner, she threw her hands up to her face as almost not believing she had made it. But Arnay is a great speller, according to her principal, and also an excellent student at the school in Lehigh.

What was funny at the competition was that officials had spelled her name wrong on her large name tag hanging around her neck, but nothing was said at the spelling bee about the misspelling.

Arnay came in third place when she was in the sixth grade during the county

spelling bee competition. She said she wanted to go to college and become an architect.

“I love math and I love being creative,” she said.

when she returned to school the next day, she said she received congratulations

from all the students and faculty.

A lot of students often ask the meaning of the word or for it to be used in a

sentence, but not Arnay, who spelled every word without a problem.

“I did think of each word for a few seconds and then I spell it out for them,”

she smiled.

Coming in second was Neesh Patel, a seventh grader at Dunbar Middle School. The 12-year–old was stumped when he couldn’t spell “ethanol.”

Some 40 students from 20 schools in the county competed in the contest.

Arnay says she rarely uses Spell Check on her computer. And she said she studied hard for the spelling bee.

Scott Clark, the school principal said Arnay is an outstanding student who is

involved in the National Junior Honor Society.

“She’s also an accomplished musician playing the flute and the saxophone.

“She’s an all around great student; she’s excellent at everything and works hard

with her studies,” he said.