Dev Shah is US National Spelling Bee 2023 champion: All about the Indian-origin 14-year-old who won $50,000

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Dev Shah wins Spelling
Bee 2023 contest

Dominance of Indian Americans continues in the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in the US as 14-year-old Dev Shah becomes the 2023 champion and takes home a $50,000 (Rs 41,16,875 approximately) prize [{ "selector": ".wrnwp-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 441px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".kupik-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

Dev Shah's prize

Dev Shah also won $2,000 in book money to be donated to the school of his choice, a $2,500 cash and reference book award from Merriam-Webster, and $400 worth of reference material from Encyclopedia Brittanica [{ "selector": ".guxpj-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 431px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".woatg-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

'My legs are shaking':
Dev Shah

Eighth-grader Dev Shah from Florida became the 85th National Spelling Bee champion after he got the 11-letter word ‘psammophile’ right. "It's surreal...My legs are still shaking," he said at the competition in National Harbor, Maryland, according to US media reports [{ "selector": ".rrwoi-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 424px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".qpctq-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

Dev Shah's attempts at the
Spelling Bee championship

Dev Shah had previously participated in the spelling bee competition in 2019 and 2021 as well, so he was pretty close with many who made it to the finals of the competition. "They've all been in many online bees and many Scripps National Spelling Bees, and I felt like a spark and a camaraderie between all of us,” Shah said after becoming the 2023 champion [{ "selector": ".mqnjk-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 383px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".rejwa-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

Indian origin champion

Dev Shah is the son of Deval Shah, a software engineer who immigrated to the US from India 29 years ago to get his master's degree in electrical engineering. Dev Shah is the 22nd Scripps National Spelling Bee champion in the past 24 years with South Asian heritage. Dev's brother Neil is a rising junior at Yale [{ "selector": ".jnnzi-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 393px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".ilccc-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

1st India-origin person
to win Scripps Spelling Bee
championship

Balu Natarajan was the first person of Indian origin to win the spelling-bee championship in 1985. The feat was repeated by Rageshree Ramachandran, another person of Indian origin, in 1988 [{ "selector": ".pmati-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 440px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".agptt-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

Dominance of Indian
origin people

Nupur Lala won the spelling bee in 1999, followed by George Thampy in 2000, Pratyush Buddiga in 2002, Sai Gunturi in 2003, and Anurag Kashyap in 2005. With Sameer Mishra’s win in 2008, the Indian dominance of the competition started to shine through. Participants of Indian origin won consecutive championships until 2019 [{ "selector": ".luxjl-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 396px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".zkmkn-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

Winner of 2021 Scripps
Spelling Bee contest

The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition was cancelled in 2020 for the first time since the Second World War due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, Zaila Avant-garde became the first African-American participant to win the Scripps Spelling Bee, breaking the 12-year-long run of winners of Indian origin [{ "selector": ".pzene-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 396px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".fqmwg-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

Indian dominance makes
a comeback

Last year, Harini Logan, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from San Antonio, Texas, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition. Winning this year, Dev Shah has once again established the dominance of people of Indian origin in the prestigious competition [{ "selector": ".zojzw-a", "duration": "500ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "transform": "translateY(calc(600px - 396px))", "opacity": "1"}, {"offset": 1, "transform": "translateY(0)", "opacity": "1"} ] }, { "selector": ".diutq-a", "duration": "1000ms", "fill": "forwards", "delay": "0ms", "keyframes": [ {"offset": 0, "opacity": 0}, {"offset": 1, "opacity": "1"} ] }]

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Dev Shah is US National Spelling Bee 2023 champion: All about the Indian-origin 14-year-old who won $50,000

Produced by: HarshitaDesigned by: Mohsin Shaikh

Dev Shah wins Spelling Bee 2023 contest

Dev Shah's prize

'My legs are shaking': Dev Shah

Dev Shah's attempts at the Spelling Bee championship

Indian origin champion

1st India-origin person to win Scripps Spelling Bee championship

Dominance of Indian origin people

Winner of 2021 Scripps Spelling Bee contest

Indian dominance makes a comeback

Produced by: Harshita
Designed by: Mohsin Shaikh