14-year-old Indian-American wins National Geographic Bee contest

Washington, May 14

Karan Menon, a 14-year-old Indian-American student, has won the prestigious National Geographic Bee competition in the US, in which the top three positions were bagged by Indian-origin contestants.

Menon, an eighth grader from New Jersey, competed against 10 finalists from across the US to win the 2015 National Geographic Bee championship held yesterday at the National Geographic headquarters here.

Of the 10 finalists, seven were of Indian-origin.

In addition to winning the title of the National Geographic Bee champion, Menon received a $85,000 college scholarship, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an expedition for two to the Galapagos Islands aboard the Lindblad ship National Geographic Endeavour.

Menon has added his name to a long list of Indian-origin kids who have made their mark over the years in the similarly coveted spelling bee championships in the US.

The first-runner up and recipient of a $25,000 college scholarship was 11-year-old Shriya Yarlagadda of Michigan.

The third place and a $10,000 college scholarship went to Sojas Wagle of Arkansas, a 13-year-old eighth grader.

Menon answered all seven championship-round questions correctly to win the title.

The final question, which clinched the win for Menon, was: “If completed, the proposed Grand Inga Dam would become the world’s largest hydropower plant. This dam would be built near Inga Falls on which African river?”

The Congo River was the correct answer.

Yarlagadda missed just the first question: “Mariupol, a city located at the mouth of the Kalmius River, is located on what sea that is an arm of the Black Sea?” The correct answer was Sea of Azov.

Seven other finalists, who each won $500, were Kapil Nathan, a 10-year-old fifth grader from Birmingham, Alabama; Nicholas Monahan, a 12-year-old sixth grader from Idaho; Patrick Taylor, a 12-year-old seventh grader from Iowa; Abhinav Karthikeyan, a 12-year-old sixth grader from Maryland; Lucy Chae, a 13-year-old seventh grader from Massachusetts; Shreyas Varathan, a 14-year-old eighth grader from Minnesota; and Tejas Badgujar, a 13-year-old eighth grader from Pennsylvania.

More than 4 million students in over 11,000 schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, US Atlantic and Pacific territories and Department of Defense Dependents Schools took part in the National Geographic Bee contest this year.

After winning the competition Menon said, “I’m on top of the world right now.”

Menon said he found the questions to be “really challenging”.

“Some of them I’d studied, but for some of them, I had to take a risk. I just had to go with my gut and say an answer,” he was quoted as saying by ‘MyCentralJersey.com’.

He said he’s always been interested in geography, a subject which helps one become a “global citizen.” “I’ve always liked looking at maps, seeing where each location is and learning about the different parts the world,” he said.

“You get to see how and what it is like outside the boundaries of your hometown,” he said.

“Geography really connects these dots together. It’s good to know about the world you live in. You learn about the various cultures around the world and how they live and the topography,” he said.

Yarlagadda said it felt “great” to be the runner-up.

The sixth-grader said studying is part of her daily routine.

“I gather various facts and I put them together into my fact files, and study those,” she said.

Yarlagadda, one of only six girls to make it to nationals this year, also expressed disappointment at not being able to participate again in the competition next year since prize winners are not eligible for future competitions.

The National Geographic Bee held last year was also won by an Indian-American student, Akhil Rekulapelli, from Virginia.

Indian-American kids regularly participate and win in similar competitions, like the spelling bee.

Last year, two Indian-American kids Sriram Hathwar, 14, and Ansun Sujoe, 13, had created history by jointly winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the first time in 52 years that two participants won the contest.

The win by the duo was the seventh consecutive year that Indian-American students retained the spelling bee title, a trend that was started by Sameer Mishra who won the contest in 2008.

In another record-breaking contest, 13-year-old Kush Sharma emerged as the winner of a local spelling bee competition in Missouri last year defeating a middle school student in an epic duel that had lasted for a total of 95 rounds in two installments after the judges ran out of words in a previous round. — PTI