Thaindian News

Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, spelt the word ‘ergasia’ right in the fourth round of the semi-final of the National spelling Bee. The word ‘ergasia‘, a Greek word, means any form of activity, especially mental. Kavya Shivashankar, an eight grader from the California Trails Junior High School, is the 8th kid of Indian origin to have won the Bee. The winner for last year was Sameer Mishra. Kavya spelt Laodicean in the final round to clinch the title that had been evading her for the last three years. In each of those years she had made it to the final rounds.

The other two finalists, Tim Ruiter and Aishwarya Pastapur made their exit in the 15th round of the championship finals. Tim spelt the word ‘Maecenas’ which means a generous benefactor, wrong and left the competition. Aishwarya didn’t spell ‘menhir’ right and made her exit.

Though the 13 year old was ready to face the media, she was taken aback a little by the tremendous media storm that awaited her moments after her lifting the winner’s trophy in the Grand Hyatt ballroom in Washington D.C on Thursday night. On Friday, at 5 a.m. Kavya was on her way to make her first television appearance. She just had an hour or two break before running off for another interview at MSNBC. She also had to write down the winner’s speech for the Scripps awards ceremony at night, which she had to deliver.

Kavya’s father Mirle is her spelling coached both had been working hard at improving her spellings for long. At the age of 10, Kavya was placed 10th in the National Bee.