My name is Bethlehem Kidane. I am 14 years old from School of Nations in Grade 9. My aim of participating in the spelling bee is to improve my reading and spelling skills as well as to improve my critical thinking. From the Ethiopian spelling bee I stood second out of 200 spellers and received a tablet, a trophy and a medal. After that, along with two other spellers, I was chosen to participate in the first ever African Spelling Bee held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Johannesburg is a very beautiful city. We had a lot of fun until the competition to be held on Saturday 16th of July. The competition was a bit harder than the Ethiopian spelling bee but again, I was proud to be joint second place (with Kenya),  representing my country Ethiopia. First place was taken by South Africa. I would like to take this chance to tell all Ethiopian students to work hard for what they want and to always pursue their dreams. Finally, I would like to thank God for letting me go this far, then I would like to thank all my families, teachers and friends.