Two Southwest Orange middle school students place in Spanish bee

Hamlin Middle School's Pedro Nascimento placed first and Horizon West Middle School's Kaori Arce placed third in Orange County Public Schools' Spanish Spelling Bee.

By Liz Ramos
| 7:04 a.m. February 2, 2026

Horizon West Middle School's Kaori Arce placed third, Hamlin Middle School's Pedro Nascimento placed first, and Innovation Middle School's Rodrigo Neves placed second in Orange County Public Schools' Spanish Spelling Bee.

Observer School Zone
News

Two Southwest Orange middle school students were busy bees Thursday, Jan. 29.

Hamlin Middle School's Pedro Nascimento and Horizon West Middle School's Kaori Arce participated in Orange County Public Schools' Spanish Spelling Bee.

Nascimento placed first, and Arce placed third out of 40 students from OCPS middle and K-8 schools in a marathon16-round competition.

The spellers also went through an unprecedented 11 rounds of the ultra-tough 'Erudito' list.

author

Liz Ramos

Managing Editor Liz Ramos previously covered education and community for the East County Observer. Before moving to Florida, Liz was an education reporter for the Lynchburg News & Advance in Virginia for two years after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism.