On January 7, 35 students from Forsyth County elementary and middle schools participated in a district spelling bee where North Forsyth student Sharanya Vats came out on top.
After 30 rounds of tough competition, Vats emerged as the victor after correctly spelling the word “Rastafarian”. She attended the spelling bee as a representative from North Forsyth Middle School.
Three Forsyth locals judged the competition, including Derek Brooks with Brandywine Printing, Fonda Harrison from the Forsyth County Retired Educators Association and Greg Orr with the Georgia Association of Educators.
The process for narrowing down student representatives began in August 2022. Each school wishing to participate paid a $175 enrollment fee and conducted its own spelling bee. All elementary and middle schools in Forsyth were only allowed to send one student, the winner, to compete on the county level.
The first runner-up was Nimal Murugan from South Forsyth Middle, the second runner-up was Satwik Bodhireddy from DeSana Middle, the third runner-up was Ella Kim from Sharon Elementary and the fourth runner-up was Yazhini Murugan from Mashburn Elementary.
Vats and the other four students will now compete in the Georgia Association of Educators’ Region 2 Spelling Bee on February 25 at Etowah High School. Kriti Sahal from Vickery Creek Elementary placed sixth and will serve as the alternate.
The Georiga State Spelling Bee will take place on March 17 at Georiga State University, where the winner from Region 2 will go on to compete against all other regional winners in Georgia.
Beyond that, the National Spelling Bee will be hosted from May 28 through June 2, where the winner from the state competition will compete with other students from across the country.
