spelling bee

29 Indian-Americans among 43 Semifinalists @ National Spelling Bee competition …

Natarajan1 Comment

Indian-Americans have dominated most of the prestigious spelling awards in the United States for several years now, and this year is no different. Out of 49 semi finalists of the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, 25 are of the Indian origin dominating another prestigious annual event.

The semi finals which are scheduled on Friday will have all 49 contestants competing for a place in the finals of 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

S-1

14 years old Gokul Venkatachalam who finished third in 2014 is performing fairly well this year and is one of the best contenders for the prize. Another good contender is 13 years old Vanya Shivashankar, who is making a fifth appearance in the Spelling Bee. Vanya’s elder sister Kavya won the 2009 Championship. Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe were the joint winners in 2014.

The National Spelling Bee has been going on since 1925. It started with 9 contestants and this year it received participation from all 50 states. This year’s winner will be awarded with a cash prize of $ 35,000.

News Source: The Hindu

 

Source….www.storypick.com

natarajan

Obama meets Indian-American Spelling bee champs !!!

NatarajanLeave a comment
1
  • US President Barack Obama meets Spelling Bee co-champions Sriram Hathway and Ansun Sujoe at the Oval Office in the White House in Washington on Monday.
    PTI  US President Barack Obama meets Spelling Bee co-champions Sriram Hathway and Ansun Sujoe at the Oval Office in the White House in Washington on Monday.
  • Indian American Spelling Bee co-champions Sriram Hathway from New York and Ansun Sujoe from Texas outside the White House after meeting US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Monday.
    PTI Indian American Spelling Bee co-champions Sriram Hathway from New York and Ansun Sujoe from Texas outside the White House after meeting US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Monday.
  • In this May 29, 2014 file photo, Ansun Sujoe, 13, ( left) of Fort Worth, Texas, and Sriram Hathwar, 14, of Painted Post, N.Y., raise the championship trophy after being named co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, in Oxon Hill, Md.
    AP In this May 29, 2014 file photo, Ansun Sujoe, 13, ( left) of Fort Worth, Texas, and Sriram Hathwar, 14, of Painted Post, N.Y., raise the championship trophy after being named co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, in Oxon Hill, Md.

The two co-champions were accompanied by their proud parents in their interaction with Obama, who had invited them to the White House

US President Barack Obama might be one of the world’s most powerful man but he is no spelling champion as he failed to spell two words correctly given to him by this year’s Indian—American co—champions of the prestigious Spelling Bee contest.

“He (the President) is very humble. I think he (Obama) is appropriate for the job,” Sriram Hathway from New York told PTI in an interview, moments after he and co—champion of Scripps National Spelling Bee Ansun Sujoe from Texas met the US President at his Oval Office yesterday.

The two co-champions were accompanied by their proud parents in their interaction with Obama, who had invited them to the White House.

Soon after Sriram, 14, and Ansun, 13, were declared co-champions of this year’s Spelling Bee, Obama had tweeted, .

“Congrats to Ansun and Sriram, the incredible co-champs of the #ScrippsNationalSpellingBee. You make us all proud!“.

This was for the first time since 1962 that the annual spelling contest had ended in a tie.

“The President greeted us. He is very nice. He talked to us little bit. He gave us some advice. He also spelled a couple of words for us. Like the two words we misspelled —— corpsbruder and antigropelos. He did not spell them correctly.

But it was quite fun to hear it and to talk with the President and interact,” Ansun told PTI outside the White House after his memorable meeting with Obama.

During the spelling bee competition this year both Sriram and Ansun stumbled one time with the words “Corpsbruder (a close comrade)” and “Antigropelos (waterproof leggings)” respectively. And both passed on these words to Obama for spelling.

For the Spelling bee champions, this was not a surprise.

“He (tried) to spell those two words. We got to shake hands with him. He greeted us very humbly…very welcoming. It was an honour to meet him,” Sriram said.

Obama presented the two young Indian-Americans a book on Constitutional amendments in which he wrote: “Dream, Big Dreams.”

Keywords: Barack Obama, Indian-American Spelling bee champions, Spelling Bee contest

Source:::The Hindu.com

Natarajan