Washington: A 13-year-old Indian-American girl from Kansas, Kavya Shivshankar, has won the prestigious Scripps Spelling Bee championship trophy after a keenly-fought contest that was dominated by youngsters from the community.
Kavya was declared the Spelling Bee champion after she correctly spelled "laodicean" at the end of the grilling championship finals which included 11 students from all across the country, seven of whom happened to be Indian-Americans.
An eighth grader student from Olathe in Kansas, Kavya names Nupur Lala, the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, as her role model and the inspiration for her spelling career.
She looks forward to becoming a neurosurgeon. She participated in the 2006, 2007, and 2008 national finals-tying for 10th, 8th, and 4th place, respectively.
Tim Ruiter, 12, a seventh grade student from Centreville, Virginia was declared the runner-up, while Aishwarya Pastapur, 13, from Springfield in Illinois got the third spot.
A voracious reader and dedicated student, Aishwarya was instrumental in leading her Mathcounts team to state-level competition by winning first place in county-level competition two years in a row.