Three NJ Desis Make it to 2019 Spelling Bee Finals

Eight New Jersey Indian kids are among the 565 vying for 2019 Spelling Bee Championship to be held in Washington DC from May 27-30.

A total of 16 kids from New Jersey are competing for the 2019 national Spelling Bee championship.

And, eight out of 16 kids representing the state of New Jersey are Indian-Americans.

New Jersey Indian 2019 National Spelling Bee Contestants

2019 National Spelling Bee Desi Contestants from NJ

This means 50% of the contestants from New Jersey are of Indian origin.

* Saloni Singh of Secaucus, NJ
* Sharvani Vadlamani of Dayton, NJ
* Aritra Banerjee of Hillsborough, NJ
* Navneeth Murali of Edison, NJ
* Shruthika Padhy of Cherry Hill, NJ
* Aashi Mishra of Westfield, NJ
* Nitya Kathiravan of Edison, NJ
* Varshaa Venkitesh of Paramus, NJ

And of the eight desi contestants six are girls.

Desi Contestants in 2019 National Spelling Bee

Including the eight New Jersey Indians, a total of at least 164 Desis from Alabama, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, California, Texas and other states are vying for the 2019 National Spelling Bee championship.

Of the 164 desis, 68 are girls and the rest boys.

It’ll be a huge surprise if an Indian kid fails to win the Spelling Bee trophy this time too.

Indian-American Spelling Champs

Indian-Americans have been basically competing against each other in recent years.

Here’s a list of Indian-American Spelling Bee champs since 2000:

2018 – Karthik Nemmani
2017 – Ananya Vinay
2016 – Jairam Hathwar & Nihar Janga
2015 – Gokul Venkatachalam & Vanya Shivashankar
2014 – Ansun Sujoe & Sriram Hathwar
2013 – Arvind Mahankali
2012 – Snigdha Nandipati
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