Divine Mercy Academy student credits love of reading for spelling prowess

Don’t try to stump Divine Mercy Academy’s Owen Brown with words like irreconcilable or independence. The sixth grader competed against twenty-five other students in grades 4 through 6 at the Pittsburgh Diocesan Spelling Bee on May 21.

The spelling bee was held at St. Louise de Marillac School, 310 McMurray Road, Upper St. Clair.

Owen went nineteen rounds and came in first place.

This was Owen’s second year participating in the diocesan spelling bee; he recalled missing the word handkerchief in fifth grade.

“Owen came in fourth place last year at the spelling bee and was determined to win it all this year,” said Divine Mercy Academy Principal Nikole Laubham.

In order to select which student goes to the spelling bee in May, the school holds a classroom bee. Then, the top three students in fourth through sixth grades compete in a school spelling bee.

In fourth grade, Owen came in second place, incorrectly spelling antecedent, and just missing out on his chance to participate in the diocesan bee.

According to his parents, Erin and Tom, Owen spent countless hours reviewing the long list of commonly used words which was provided by his Language Arts teacher, Lisa Rettig.

“When I presented the word list this year, Owen said, ‘I am going to win this.’ I was confident that he would,” Rettig said. “Owen studied diligently and was very motivated. We are all proud of him.”

The words for the bee came from the word list for the first fourteen rounds.

“At this point, there were six entrants left,” said Owen.

In subsequent rounds, the words weren’t provided to the students in advance.

Owen outlasted all the other students and was awarded a medal and certificate. His gift for spelling is indisputable, which happens to be another word he spelled correctly for the win.

Erin attributed Owen’s accomplishment to his love of reading. “Owen has been studying for years before he actually participated because he is an avid reader,” Erin said, adding that he began reading the Harry Potter series in second grade.

In addition to being a proficient speller, Owen is also a published author and artist. Last school year, Owen’s story “Element’s Adventure on X9224” was published in “Crazy Creatures,”an anthology featuring monsters and creatures.

In first grade, Owen submitted a drawing to “Scooby-Doo! Magazine” which was published in their January/February 2020 issue.

Owen also plays basketball and volleyball for Divine Mercy Academy, and is on the Forest Hills Swim Team. He enjoys reading graphic novels and fictional stories. He also likes to build Lego sets and play video games, and wants to be a video game designer when he grows up.

“We are so proud of all of Owen’s achievements. He’s always been a really bright boy and he was determined to win the bee this year,” said Erin. “He remained focused and studied hard, but we know it was his years of devouring books that gave him the edge.”