This is Ananya Vinay the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.  To be declared the winner, she spelled 35 words correctly in a grueling 12 hour time frame. Ananya is a tenacious competitor tying for the last three bees.   This year she is the solo winner and won over 291 spellings to earn $40,000 in money and prizes.

There is great curiosity as to the unprecedented success of Indian Americans.  In 2016,  seventy  of the final 285 competitors  of the National Spelling Bee had South Asian surnames. Indian Americans have also won the last 5 National Geographic Bees.

It is remarkable, to say the least, that the record of successful competitions are  dominated by a group less than 1 % of school age population. Indian people traditionally do well in math /science / engineering  and have strong abilities in learning where memorizing is a strong component.  Family is a key component  in both nature and nurture.  The parents of these children are highly educated, working in high level positions,  and  value competition, hard work  in order to  attain higher degrees.  One of the contestants this year was following in her mother’s footsteps as a second generation spelling.   Working hard and not giving up is another winning attribute.  Ananya had tied as the winner for 3 previous years.  This year she was the solo winner.

These Indian American immigrants hunger for success in the United States.  They work hard even to deprivation  of other wants  in order to  attain that dream.

Congratulation to Ananya and the Indian community. Thanks for your contributions and hard work teaching others by your  inspiration  and example.