By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

TWO CNMI students topped the 2007 Scripps Regional Spelling Bee held on Guam over the weekend.
Pauline Lydia Manglona, an eight grader from Eskuelan San Francisco De Borja on Rota, won first place, while Calvary Christian Academy’s sixth grade student Melody Margaret Johnson placed second.
Manglona is Sen. Paul A. Manglona’s daughter.
Johnson, 10, is the youngest among the top three winners of the competition that drew 69 participants from different schools in Guam, Palau and the CNMI.
She won runner up honors by correctly spelling the word, “hieroglyph” in the ninth round, beating eight grader Samuel Wolborsky of Guam’s Andersen Middle School.
During each round, the participants were to pick randomly a word they would spell out.
The competition was sponsored by the Pacific Daily News and the Rotary Club of Guam.
Johnson won a $500 savings bond, a one-year subscription to the online Britannica Encyclopedia, a $50 gift certificate from Bestseller, and a $20 coupon from Amazon.com.
Johnson reads a lot, does her homework all by herself and likes to join academic competitions, according to her 43-year-old mother, Delia.
Johnson was recently awarded a certificate in the Mathcounts competition. Last year, she made it to the championship round of the Pacific Ocenia junior tennis tournament held in Fiji. She also plays soccer and was the Little Miss CNMI 2004 second runner up.
“If other kids would like to join a contest they should put all their effort and dedication into it and try their best,” Johnson said.