Indian Kid Snigdha Nandipati is 2012 Bee Champion

I counted 45 Indian kids from the 278 shortlisted contestants for the 2012 Scripps Spelling Bee Competition.

Of the 45 desis, 23 are girls and the rest boys.

The youngest Indian kid is eight-year-old Ashrita Vadlapatla from North Carolina.

Ashrita can trace her roots to the great land of NTR, Chiranjeevi, Jagan Mohan Reddy and that shrieking ‘champaestanu‘ baboon Allu Arjun.

Desi Contestants Details

1) Shruti Amin
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Thompson Middle School, Murrieta, CA

2) Snigdha Nandipati
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Francis Parker School, San Diego, CA

3) Siddharth Kulkarni
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Chaboya Middle School, San Jose, CA

4) Rahul R. Malayappan
Age, Grade: 12, Eighth Grade
School: Broadview Middle School, Danbury, CT

5) Pranay Choudary Malempati
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Alfred G. Waters Middle School, Middletown , DE

6) Kriyana Reddy
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: All Saints’ Academy , Winter Haven, FL

7) Vaidya Govindarajan
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Herbert A. Ammons Middle School, Miami, FL

8 ) Stuti Mishra
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, Melbourne, FL

9) Nikitha Chandran
Age, Grade: 12, Seventh Grade
School: Brandon Academy, Brandon, FL

10) Simola Nayak
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Henderson Middle School, Chamblee, GA

11) Pranav Sivakumar
Age, Grade: 12, Seventh Grade
School: Barrington Middle School — Station Campus, Barrington, IL

12) Dhruva Tapan Mehta
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Bourbonnais Upper Grade Center , Bourbonnais, IL

13) Jay N. Shirodkar
Age, Grade: 14, Seventh Grade
School: Keith Country Day School, Rockford, IL

14) Pranav Haran
Age, Grade: 11, Sixth Grade
School: Western Middle School, Russiaville, IN

15) Joshua N. Kalyanapu
Age, Grade: 13, Seventh Grade
School: Tri-State Christian School, Galena, IL

16) Vanya Shivashankar (sister of 2009 champion Kavya Shivashankar)
Age, Grade: 10, Fifth Grade
School: Regency Place Elementary School, Olathe, KS

17) Venkatesh Sivaraman
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Caddo Middle Magnet School, Shreveport, LA

18) Amulya Parmar
Age, Grade: 13, Seventh Grade
School: Christian Home Educators Parents Association, Sterling Heights, MI

19) Ritvik Reddy Jillala
Age, Grade: 10, Fifth Grade
School: Warner Elementary School, Spring Arbor, MI

20) Kuvam Nirad Shahane
Age, Grade: 10, Fifth Grade
School: Reuther Middle School, Rochester Hills, MI

21) Kavyapranati Pratapa
Age, Grade: 12, Seventh Grade
School: South Arbor Charter Academy, Ypsilanti, MI

22) Antony Joseph
Age, Grade: 13, Seventh Grade
School: Fairmont Junior/Senior High School, Fairmont, MN

23) Roshini Shreya Asirvatham
Age, Grade: 12, Eighth Grade
School: Friedell Middle School, Rochester, MN

24) Dev Jaiswal
Age, Grade: 10, Fifth Grade
School: Winston Academy, Louisville, MS

25) Adeesh Mishra
Age, Grade: 12, Sixth Grade
School: Sacred Heart School, Poplar Bluff, MO

26) Gokul Venkatachalam
Age, Grade: 11, Fifth Grade
School: Claymont Elementary School, Ballwin, MO

27) Sanjana Mohan Malla
Age, Grade: 11, Sixth Grade
School: Haverstraw Middle School, Haverstraw, NY

28) Sruti Akula
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Alternate School of Math and Science, Corning, NY

29) Keerthi Radhakrishnan
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Circleville Middle School, Pine Bush, NY

30) Arvind V. Mahankali
Age, Grade: 12, Seventh Grade
School: Junior High School 74 Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bayside, NY

31) Meghna Mahadevan
Age, Grade: 12, Sixth Grade
School: Western Alamance Middle School, Elon, NC

32) Ashrita Vadlapatla
Age, Grade: 8, Fourth Grade
School: Renaissance Classical Christian Academy, Fayetteville, NC

33) Vedantanshu Kar
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: J.W. Parker Middle School, Rocky Mount, NC

34) Manu U. Nair
Age, Grade: 11, Fifth Grade
School: Shirley Mann Elementary School, Union, KY

35) Dharani Kotekal
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Indian Creek Junior High, Mingo Junction, OH

36)  Vishnu S. Nistala
Age, Grade: 12, Eighth Grade
School: The News-Herald, Willoughby, OH

37) Reena Elizebath Benny
Age, Grade: 12, Seventh Grade
School: Garnet Valley Middle School, Glen Mills, PA

38) Neha Bhardwaj
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Indian Valley Middle School, Harleysville, PA

39) Visha Parmar
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Robert K. Shafer Middle School, Bensalem, PA

40) Chetan Reddy
Age, Grade: 12, Seventh Grade
School: C.M. Rice Middle School, Plano, TX

41) Sivateja Tangirala
Age, Grade: 13, Eighth Grade
School: Fort Settlement Middle School, Sugar Land, TX

42) Vismaya Jui Kharkar
Age, Grade: 13, Seventh Grade
School: Challenger School, Salt Lake City, UT

43) Urna Chakrabarty
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: Thomas Harrison Middle School, Harrisonburg, VA

44) Shivali B. Halabe
Age, Grade: 12, Sixth Grade
School: Suncrest Middle School, Morgantown, WV

45) Heloise Cheruvalath
Age, Grade: 14, Eighth Grade
School: North Middle School, Menomonee Falls, WI

2012 Spelling Bee Schedule

May 29 – Round One Test
Various times throughout the morning

May 30 – Preliminaries
8AM–5:30PM EDT

May 31 – Semifinals
10AM–1PM EDT

May 31 – Finals
8PM–10PM EDT

Recent Indian Spelling Bee Champs from 2000

2011 – Sukanya Roy
2010 – Anamika Veeramani
2009 – Kavya Shivashankar
2008 – Sameer Mishra
2005 – Anurag Kashyap
2003 – Sai R.Gunturi
2002 – Pratyush Buddiga
2000 – George Abraham Thampy

Related Spelling Bee Stories

Indian Kid Wins Spelling Bee, Again; Snigdha Nandipati is 2012 Bee Champion
Boring News – Indian Kid Wins Spelling Bee, Again; Sukanya Roy is 2011 Champion
Tamil Girl Anamika Veeramani is 2010 Spelling Bee Champion

  2012 Spelling Bee, Scripps, Spelling Bee