BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Since 1925, some of the nation’s best young spellers have been competing in a championship that’s now known as The Scripps National Spelling Bee.
This year, five representatives from Louisiana are among the 231 contenders. One of the acclaimed spellers is a Baton Rouge student. Rishaan Reddy, a 10-year-old University Laboratory student, will be competing in the competition.
Reddy will be joined by four other fellow Louisianians. These include Aiden Pham of Lafayette, Kai Richardson of Lake Charles, Nayara de Silva-Ahmed of New Orleans, and Sahil Thorat of Shreveport.
The 2023 competition will play out within the halls of Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Fort Washington, Maryland. There, Louisiana’s young representatives will face off against contestants from the nation’s other 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe. A few international students will be in the mix as well, representing the Bahamas, Canada and Ghana.
Each of the 231 students has their sights set on the grand prize, which includes $50,000 in cash, a commemorative medal, and the Scripps Cup trophy.
Traversing the long road to the national contest is no easy task. The students have bested their peers at a variety of smaller spelling contests to make their way to the grand finale. This is why each of the contenders will earn a special prize package, a year-long subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, A 2023 United States Mint Proof Set, and a 12-month subscription to Britannica Online Premium.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a two-day event that will take place at 7 pm. CT on Wednesday, May 31 and Thursday, June 1.
