APEX, N.C. — A Davis Drive Middle School student brought North Carolina the closest to the Scripps National Spelling Bee title in decades.
What You Need To Know
- Ananya Prassanna is a rising eighth-grader
- This was her third time competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee
- She placed third on the national stage for the 2024 contest, the furthest a competitor from N.C. has gotten since 1970, when the state won the trophy
- Prassanna wants to mentor others in spelling and show others the benefits it brings
Ananya Prassanna loves music and has been playing the piano for years.
“I just really like the rhythm. Like of playing piano and just, like, how beautiful it sounds when you play it,” Prassanna said.
The rising eighth grader says she often doesn’t get to play the piano, as she traded in studying the seven letters of the musical staff to all 26 in the alphabet — by competing in spelling bees.
“It first started when me and my friends were trying to have a competition amongst each other. And we tried to see who would score the highest,” Prassanna said.
It quickly turned into a full-fledged lifestyle, practicing words up to seven hours a day.
“I was always just really good at getting spelling words correctly,” Prassanna said.
English is not her first language, but hard work and perseverance brought Prassanna to win and compete in dozens of spelling bees, including the Scripps National Spelling Bee stage numerous times, placing in the quarterfinals in fifth and sixth grade.
“This year I approached it with the mindset that if I keep thinking that I'll just go to quarterfinals and come back, then that's not going to work. Even if it's a word that I might not know, I've got to figure it out,” Prassanna said.
Prassanna says she uses rhythm while either dancing or rapping to help memorize words.
She says any word in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary is fair game during Scripps. Instead of memorizing the thousands of words in the dictionary, she says she studies the roots of words and their origin, for example, breaking down the word "Vincaleukoblastine," discovering its roots of Latin for "Vinca” and what it means.
She also memorizes all of the possible definitions of the word as in the competition there is no alternate definitions that can be used, only pronunciation if one is applicable. She says the bee often picks words that do not follow origin rules or that have unique spelling.
“For that you can't really figure anything out. You have to just memorize the word,” Prassanna said.
She says the bee doesn’t just prove you can spell, it introduces her to all different sectors of education, including science, mythology and trademarks just to name a few.
All of her studying paid off with Prassanna placing third in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee.
She was sent by North and South Carolina’s regional sponsor, the Carolina Panthers.
After the competition, she got the chance to visit the White House and saw President Joe Biden and the Kansas City Chiefs.
At home, she was recognized at her school and even invited to the state Senate and was interviewed by Sen. Jay Chaudhuri.
“It was just really nice seeing that so many people are supporting me. Even my school was really, really encouraging and supportive. I was expecting a surprise visit, but I wasn't expecting it to be this grand,” Prassanna said.
She said the other contestants at the bee are all friends, even supporting each other in and outside of the competition and sharing words they think may be used in the bee.
“We have this huge community of spellers, and we just talk. But for Scripps, it’s that one time of year that we get to actually talk to each other in person. And we always have this after party, after the entire competition where we just have fun,” Prassanna said.
Prassanna's last year of eligibility is 2025, although she does not know if she will return to the stage and may pivot her time to other passions like Kathak, a traditional storytelling Indian dance, or strengthen her love of science, the field she would like to go into.
“I’m planning on starting a spelling bee club for my middle school to get people more engaged in this, because I feel like even though the spelling bee gets a lot of awareness, I feel like it should like it could be more hyped up. I feel like starting a spelling bee club would sort of promote that, especially in the middle school I go to. They don't have a spelling bee competition there. So I’m talking to my principal to make it work, and hopefully it does. I can probably mentor some kids there. But I feel like I really want to mentor kids, because I just want to guide them into achieving what they want to achieve,” Prassanna said.
She says Scripps brings great opportunity in and outside of the classroom for the contestants and is trying to get more schools registered as the schools have to be registered with Scripps for a student to compete in the bees.
“It's important that every kid should get a chance to participate in this competition. And just because they're not in the right school and the competition doesn't provide that shouldn't be like a reason why they don't want to pursue their interests,” Prassanna said.