For the fourth consecutive year, Sukanya was crowned the champion at the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, on June 2. lori anne madison spelling bee, national spelling bee,
Of the 13 finalists, seven, including Sukanya and Arvind, were Indian Americans. The list included this year’s youngest finalist, 10-year-old Dhivya Senthil Murugan of Colorado.
She shared the sixth place with New York-based 11-year-old Shriram Hathwar and Texas-based 14-year-old Mashad Arora, 14. New York’s Nabeel Rahman and North Carolina’s Prakash Mishra, both 13 years old, tied at the 10th place.
After Nupur Lala captured the crown in 1999, an Indian-American has won eight of the previous 12 Spelling Bees.
Roy’s win was certainly not due to a lack of competition. The Bee lasted 20 rounds, and Roy’s final four opponents proved formidable; as a group the final five spelled 20 straight words correctly at one point. The first of the five knocked off was Dakota Jones, a 14 year old from Las Vegas who lost in the 15th round.
Experience certainly seemed to play a role in this year’s Bee, certainly a pattern that has been developing with the increased attention the competition has been receiving.
Out of the 13 finalists, only one had never been to a Bee before. For eight of the finalists, this was their second Bee, and for four of the finalists, this was their third Bee. In fact, the final two spellers were both three-year contestants.
It goes to show that not only does practice make perfect but that these kids, most of whom are only anywhere from 12 to 14 years old, need time to get used to the spotlight that they are put under at the Bee.
Roy, an 8th grader from Abington Heights Middle School, Pennsylvania, defeated 12 other finalists to bag the trophy and a cash award of $30,000 from Scripps, in addition to $2,500 in a United States savings bond from Merriam Webster.
Roy not only gets the trophy, but also more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $2,600 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopaedia Britannica, $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc. That comes out to $2,000 for each correctly spelled word.
