Menands eighth grade student Mohamed Elhadi placed third in the regional spelling bee late last month.
The 14-year-old will represented the Menands School against the top spellers from around the region during the Albany competition, taking an impressive third place finish.
“It was fun. Challenging but fun,” he said.
Adding to Elhadi’s sense of success is the fact that English isn’t his first language. The teen first learned Arabic before moving to the United States about 10 years ago.
He credited him mom, Rasha, with helping him prepare.
“I practiced a lot with my mom, Rasha, and worked a lot on the words I didn’t get right at first,” he said.