BAHAMAS SPELLING CHAMP IS SPELLER EIGHT IN SCRIPPS BEE WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When she participates in the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National in Oxon Hill, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., later this month, Prachi Kondapuram will be Speller Number 8 among the 281 spelling champions who will be competing for this year’s coveted title. Pachi, an 11-year-old seventh grade student at Queen’s College in Nassau, won the 17th Annual Bahamas National Spelling Bee on March 23 to earn the right to represent The Bahamas in highly competitive international spelling competition. This year’s spellers are from the 50 U.S. states, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Department of Defense Schools in Europe, as well as The Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea. Preliminary rounds of the competition will be on Wednesday, May 28, with both the semifinals and the finals set for Thursday, May 29. In her official profile on the Scripps Spelling Bee website, which lists the Nassau Guardian as her sponsor, Prachi “studies music theory, which she puts into practice while playing the keyboard.” “She expresses her artistic side by writing stories and poetry and drawing manga,” the website notes. “While she is in Washington, D.C., it will be impossible for her to choose between visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial because each one represents the valiant citizens who fought bravely at the behest of their country – so she will just have to go to all three. She would eat cheese pizza and chocolate all the time if she could, but she is also prone to random food cravings for everything from strawberry shortcake to tofu. Every day she tries to embody the philosophies of non-violence and forgiveness, virtues she learned from her role model Nelson Mandela.” The spellers range in age from 8 to 15 years old, with the youngest being eight-year-old Hussain Godhrawala of Barnwell, South Carolina, but more than 86% are between the ages of 12 and 14. --30--
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 17:11:24 +0000
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