NEGAUNEE – The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines karma as the force created by a person’s actions that some people believe causes good or bad things to happen to that person.

Calumet seventh-grader Zander Worm has a new appreciation for the meaning of karma, the championship word that made him the winner Wednesday of the Upper Peninsula Spelling Bee finals, which took place at Negaunee High School.

Worm will now compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on May 22-27 in National Harbor, Maryland.

The contest began with 56 fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students from 23 elementary and middle schools across the U.P. competing at their grade level. The contest spelled down to four finalists, one from each grade, by the end of the day.

Negaunee Public Schools Superintendent Dan Skewis praised all four of the finalists.

“You are considered champions at your respective grade level,” Skewis said.

Serena Hart, an eighth-grader from Norway-Vulcan Area Schools took second place; Calumet Public Schools sixth-grader Lowell Torola took third place; and Addison Koenig, a fifth-grader from Gwinn Area Community Schools, took fourth place.