Eighth grader Vincent Jiang, after a hard-fought 26 rounds, won the 2026 Knox County Spelling Bee on January 14th on the word “affiliation.”

 Jiang went on to say, “I didn’t expect it to take that long. I thought it would be pretty quick. But, it took longer than expected.” 

He studied by using the word Club App. Eventually he tried finding different ways to study since the word list for regional qualifiers changed, so he would look at the list and try to spell out the word instead.

Despite his academic focus he makes room for hobbies like playing the violin, skiing, tennis, and robotics. 

 When asking what tips he would give for anybody who is aspiring to be a spelling bee champion he responded, “use your time wisely and use as much  free time to practice as you can.”

Even though he can’t compete in the spelling bee anymore he would love to compete on a different level.

In addition, after being asked how he felt when he won he responded with, “I was surprised but I was happy. I studied a lot since it was my last year so I wanted to feel prepared.” 

He wants to thank his family and Ms. Strong. Hopefully Jiang will encourage other kids to get involved in the spelling bee.