SPELLING BEE CHAMP:14-Year-Old Wins Fifth Title for Indian-Americans

June 2, 2012 - 9:08 am | Category: National

14-year-old Snigdha Nandipati became the fifth consecutive India-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.

She correctly spelled “guetapens,” a French word for ambush, to win the title.

The avid reader and coin collector from San Diego won $30,000 in cash, a trophy, a $2,500 savings bond, a $5,000 scholarship, $2,600 in reference materials from Encyclopedia Britannica and an online language course.

Back in 1999, Nupur Lala’s victory started the Indian-American community’s run of spelling bee titles. She was featured in the documentary Spellbound.