Meridian Middle School student Matthew Cabrera recently won the Spelling Bee when he correctly spelled "jingoism." Congratulations also goes to Patric Lee who took second and Shiwani Joshi who placed third.

They were among the more than 30 students who made it to the all-school final Spelling Bee on January 25.

Matthew will participate in the Sectional Spelling Bee on February 23 at South Park School in Deerfield beginning at 6:30 p.m. He will spell for the chance to compete for the Lake County championship, which will be held in March at the College of Lake County. Winners there can move on even further to the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest.