In 20, Indians accounted for almost 75 percent of all H-1B visa holders in the United States. Seven of the 2019 champions were of Indian descent. Previously, only two kids had ever tied for the win. In 2019, Scripps named eight winners for the cup - “octochamps,” they coined themselves. “Therapy” was a winning word in 1940, but in 2019, two of the winning words were “bougainvillea” and “erysipelas.” The words have gotten progressively more difficult over the decades - mostly because the kids have gotten a lot better. The first Scripps National Bee was held in 1925 because of the pandemic, it was canceled last year for the first time since World War II. The Bee Is BackĮvery year, about 11 million children in the United States participate in school-level spelling bees. A few of them gathered to take a photograph, documenting a small moment of togetherness - a stark contrast to the playing field of today. Natarajan has the photos to prove it: When he first competed in the Scripps spelling bee in 1983, he remembers only six contestants of Indian descent out of 137 students.
We were just this tiny fraction of the participants.” “We really had no idea that we were doing this for a community. But back in the ’80s, we were just exploring it,” Mr.
“Today, we have children and families in our community that are center stage when they go to the Scripps Spelling Bee. Flyers for local bees are handed out at Indian supermarkets, and the activity is spread through word of mouth at temple events.
So have spelling bee coaching companies founded by South Asian Americans. Over the past two decades, spelling bees tailored to South Asian children have proliferated. This year, two-thirds of the semifinalists were of South Asian descent, and at least nine of the 11 finalists are of South Asian descent. Since 2008, a South Asian American kid has been named a champion at every Scripps bee. This love of vocabulary has made him one of 11 finalists in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, adding him to a long line of South Asian American middle and elementary schoolers who have excelled at the competition. “Nothing can express an idea as effectively as a judicious use of words,” he said by phone from his home in Plano, Texas. But Dhroov Bharatia, 12, has a passion for language. Eighth graders aren’t generally known as dictionary aficionados.
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