Sonja Jacobsen, a homeschooled high school senior from The Dalles, is pictured with her award from the Oregon Statewide Spelling Championship held in Salem Sept. 2.
Sonja Jacobsen, a homeschooled high school senior from The Dalles, is pictured with her award from the Oregon Statewide Spelling Championship held in Salem Sept. 2.
Most people have never heard the word “qiviut,” let alone are able to spell it correctly. It refers to the luxuriously soft underwool of the musk ox.
Local speller Sonja Jacobsen sailed through that word, along with words like crepuscular, phloem, and sybaritic, to take the state title in the highest division at the Oregon State Spelling Bee in Salem Sept. 2.
She competed in Division III, for students from grades 9–12.
The road to the state bee begins with contests at the local level the previous spring.
For Jacobsen, who has been homeschooled since kindergarten, that meant a written test through the Mid-Columbia Christian Homeschool Cooperative, an area support group for homeschoolers. A win there put her in the Wasco County bee, which she won in early May at Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles.
Taking a trip to the state bee is not a new experience for Jacobsen, a high school senior, who has competed there several times in both Divisions II and III. This is the first year she has placed in the top three.
She was surprised and pleased to take top honors since she did not formally study for the contest.
She told the bee emcee, “I do read a lot, but it’s just fun to be here.”
Afterward, Jacobsen explained she knew one of the more unusual words because of her experience with fiber and knitting in 4-H. “I actually have qiviut fiber at home.”
Her mother, Erica Jacobsen, also credits Sonja’s study of Latin as one of her classical education subjects. “It helps you to know the roots of some of the words you’ll hear,” she remarked.
The state bee is hosted at the Oregon State Fair annually by the Oregon Spellers, a group of dedicated volunteers. Wasco County also sent spellers in Divisions I and II. Division I was represented by Jacob Graves and Division II by Sonja’s younger brother Isaac, who attends Columbia Lutheran School, a classical K–8 school in The Dalles.
Although they did not place in the top three this year, both Jacob and Isaac have also made it to the state bee previously.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.