Frohsin wins county spelling bee

Mountain Brook Junior High School seventh-grader Evie Froshin won the Jefferson County Spelling Bee on Feb. 4. 

She clinched the victory by spelling “bachelorette” correctly. 

“When I got that word and I knew what it was, I was just like, ‘Yes!’ I knew I would get it,” Frohsin said. 

Frohsin won the junior high bee in late November and then placed second at the district bee in January. Although Silas Withrow of the Highlands School prevailed in 44 rounds at the district bee, both advanced to the county bee. 

Frohsin prepared for the district and county competitions by studying thousands of words with her mother, Elise. If Evie missed a word in practice, she wrote it on an index card and committed to learning it. 

“Of course, I’m very proud of her for her diligence and her hard work that she’s done,” Elise Frohsin said, “and also because it takes a lot of bravery for all of these children to get out there in front of a crowd.”

With her win at the county bee, Evie advances to the state bee in late March. She's ready for the big stage. 

“Naturally, I’m a very nervous person, and I’ve always been extremely nervous when I do spelling bees, but I mean, it’s very much worth it because they’re just so fun,” she said. 

Evie credits her love of the English language as a factor in her success. While she’s an avid reader, she also volunteers as a reading tutor with the Starting The Adventure in Reading, or STAIR, program in Birmingham. 

“I’ve always been a big English person and a grammar person,” Evie said. “I’ve just always loved it.”