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Career Path Mentors Program
                  


Motivating students onto positive career paths


 ADULT SPELLING BEE 

[2009 Article in Ventura County Star]


I before e except oh, who cares? No need to spell well at bee, a benefit for mentor program


By Anne Kallas, Ventura County Star, Sunday, June 3, 2009


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  It must have been Ventura County’s most famous diamond necklace that provided the luck the Women of Jewelia needed to win the second annual Adult Spelling Bee, because spelling skills had little to do with the competition.


In fact, spelling — and seriousness — were the last things on display during the fundraiser Tuesday evening at the Wedgewood Banquet Center in Ventura. Teams from across the county competed to see who could best kiss up to the judges and emcee Larry Matheney, Ventura County’s treasurer and tax collector.


The event served to enroll volunteers and raise funds for the Segue Career Path Mentor program. The program enlists professionals in the community to go to schools and talk with students about career choices, and provides students with online resources to pursue those careers.


“The idea of the evening is to have fun, and you just might want to come in and be a speaker,” said Segue founder and Executive Director Jerry Beckerman.


The 15 teams seemed ready for anything as they sipped cocktails and munched on hors d’oeuvres. The CEO Spelars, last year’s champions, were pumped up and ready to go. Team member Theresa Bucci was coy about disclosing its preparation techniques.


“I don’t know if we can release that information,” she said. But the other team members, Monique “Merciless” Nowlin, Jackie Cohen and Glenda Jackson, were more forthcoming, saying they studied the rules from last year’s bee and spent time coordinating their outfits, which included magicians’ hats, pink capes from Six Flags Magic Mountain and “bribing bucks” they handed out to anyone who could help them win.


With rules upon rules such as No. 11 — “Take the Greek letter Pi to two decimal points, multiply by three, round up to the next integer, divide by 2, add 3. Use the resulting number as the rule for this word.” — each word took some time to work through.


Many of the answers were challenged, sending Beckerman to a corner table trying to refigure the correct answer. In fact, only about 10 words were “spelled” the entire evening. Humor interruptions were allowed at any time, which could earn a team extra points.


The Women of Jewelia — Patti Channer, Sandra Laby, Mary O’Conner, Jonell McLain and, wearing the Jewelia necklace, Jone Pence — were decked out in green boas left over from their stint as grand marshals of the Ventura St. Patrick’s Day parade. They interrupted one spelling to warble, “A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but Segue is a kid’s best friend,” as their green feathers flew with each gesture.


There were 25 rules and nine “global rules” that superseded the others, all of which resulted in mass confusion. For example, the word “engineering” was supposed to use Rule No. 22, which called for “exchanging the locations of the second and third syllables, and then the first and fourth syllables. Now spell backward the new first and fourth syllables.” The answer then was interpreted using Global Rule No. 6, which said, “If after completing all the steps called for by all rules and Global Rules the total number of letters in a word is even, then use only the last half of the letters for that word.”


Because no one could agree on a correct answer, Matheney gave everyone 13 points and moved on.


After the Women of Jewelia, the second-place finisher was Shannon Perches, who participated on her own after her teammates canceled at the last minute. Third place went to Spell Hath No Fury, one of the teams from Ventura County government.


Beckerman said he was thrilled with the turnout, which included several teams of county employees. “We’ve had a number of people from the county who have come to be speakers, and we want to inspire future generations to step in,” he said.