Meet the 8 NC students hoping to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week
Eight North Carolina middle schoolers will compete this week in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which started in 1925 and is now the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program.
They’re among 245 total spellers who will converge on National Harbor, Maryland for the competition, with competitors drawn from all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Ghana, the Bahamas and American schools in Europe.
The semifinals air at 8 p.m. on May 29 on ION, and the finals air live the following night at 8.
There are multiple rounds of the competition, and spellers move forward each time they spell a given word correctly within the given minute and 30 seconds. When they spell a word incorrectly, they are eliminated. All spellers eliminated within the same round are tied for the same place. The champion is awarded a $50,000 cash prize.
Two spellers hail from Concord, alongside one speller from Mooresville. The other North Carolinians in this year’s cohort represent Durham, Wake, Harnett, Cumberland and Johnston Counties, respectively.
No one from North Carolina has won the competition since 1970.
Here’s a look at the eight spellers from North Carolina, and one Charlotte-area speller from Clover, South Carolina, based on their bios on the spelling bee website:
Aishwarya Kallakuri
Aishwarya Kallakuri, 13, is in seventh grade at Valor Preparatory Academy, a public charter school in Concord. She enjoys reading, writing and learning new languages in her spare time. She also likes to sing classical south Indian music with her mom and play badminton with her dad. She hopes to one day pursue a career in psychology or neurology as well as help future spellers achieve their dreams.
Ananya Rao Prassanna
Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, is in seventh grade at Davis Drive Middle School in Cary. This isn’t her first rodeo: she previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2022 and 2023, tying for 49th and 74th place, respectively. Prassanna has been a voracious reader from a young age, and she particularly enjoys books by Rick Riordan. In her free time, she enjoys practicing kathak, a type of Indian classical dance, and trying new foods.
Harini Jayakumar
Harini Jayakumar, 11, attends sixth grade at The Brawley School in Mooresville. She’s an avid fan of the Harry Potter books and is a member of her school’s Battle of the Books team, where students read books and test their knowledge on the texts they’ve read in a competition. She also enjoys participating in science and math fairs. Jayakumar loves playing softball in her spare time. She previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2022, tying for 89th place.
Phaneendra Bulusu
Phaneendra Bulusu, 12, is in sixth grade at Harris Road Middle School in Concord. He enjoys reading, playing chess and playing the flute. He also enjoys listening to music by his favorite musician, Northern Irish flutist Sir James Galway. In his spare time, Bulusu likes playing outdoors with his friends. His favorite word is caoutchouc – a type of rubber.
Johannes Roxburgh
Johannes Roxburgh, 13, is in seventh grade at Voyager Academy, a public charter school in Durham. His greatest passion is cooking: he once made a 13-course tasting menu for his family, complete with pan-seared duck with shaved asparagus and five-spice ice cream with almond tuiles. When Roxburgh isn’t spelling, he loves performing in musical theater productions and watching horror movies.
Angelo Aldoph
Angelo Aldoph, 14, is an eighth grader at R. Max Abbott Middle School in Fayetteville. He plays several instruments, including piano, violin and Okinawan drum. Aldoph and his little brother, Danielo, love to play computer coding games together, and Aldoph hopes to one day become a computer programmer. He’s back at the Scripps National Spelling Bee after also competing last year, when he tied for 173rd place.
Ethan Dunlap
Ethan Dunlap, 12, is in eighth grade at Overhills Middle School in Harnett County. He’s something of a math whiz. For the past three years, he’s tutored others in math and has his own YouTube channel where he posts his problem-solving strategies. In his spare time, he enjoys reading adventure, fantasy and mystery books as well as playing volleyball. Dunlap is also a proud Boy Scout.
Orrin Lam
Orrin Lam, 14, is in eighth grade at McGee’s Crossroads Middle School in Johnston County. While this is Lam’s first appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, he’s practiced since second grade and is thrilled to get his shot at the national competition. Lam loves math and science, and in his free time, he enjoys playing Minecraft and running track.
Mallory Greene
Mallory Greene, 14, is an eighth-grader at Clover Middle School just across the state border in Clover, South Carolina. She loves playing word games, shopping and spending time outdoors with friends and her three outdoor cats, Milky, Buttertoast and Cloudy. Greene also plays the flute in her regional band.
