EJ Mitchem Wins Membean Word Challenge
Source/Author: Heather Elouej, US English Faculty
December 02, 2021
In Shorecrest Upper School’s ninth grade English Honors course taught by Ms. Elouej, students recently participated in the 2021 Root Challenge, sponsored by the vocabulary-building program Membean.
Competing against all other schools who use the program, Shorecrest ninth graders created “pseudowords” by combining prefixes and/or suffixes to specific roots provided by Membean. Their best words were collected, and classmates voted for the top eight words—along with definitions and use in sentences—to be passed on to Membean’s contest judges.
Edward (EJ) Mitchem '25 won one of five top nationwide prizes, a $200 Amazon gift card to be used for items for the classroom, for his pseudoword, metaversaphilia, meaning “possessing fondness to turning or switching sides after one sees the outcome of things” as in: “His metaversaphilia kicked in after the team he picked lost the football game last night.”
Competing against all other schools who use the program, Shorecrest ninth graders created “pseudowords” by combining prefixes and/or suffixes to specific roots provided by Membean. Their best words were collected, and classmates voted for the top eight words—along with definitions and use in sentences—to be passed on to Membean’s contest judges.
Edward (EJ) Mitchem '25 won one of five top nationwide prizes, a $200 Amazon gift card to be used for items for the classroom, for his pseudoword, metaversaphilia, meaning “possessing fondness to turning or switching sides after one sees the outcome of things” as in: “His metaversaphilia kicked in after the team he picked lost the football game last night.”
A link to the announcement may be found here: https://membean.com/contest/winners.
