North South Foundation Speller Makes It 11 Wins in a Row With a Win at the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee

CHICAGO, June 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Karthik Nemmani from McKinney, TX takes first place at the 91^st Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee competition held at Washington D.C.  

This is the 11^th year in a row that a member of the North South Foundation (NorthSouth.Org) has taken first place in the Scripps national spelling bee championship, a remarkable achievement.

Karthik's winning word was 'KOINONIA'.

Speaking about North South Foundation students' recent successes, Dr. Ratnam Chitturi, founder of North South Foundation, commented that the Foundation is proud of all the North South children, and congratulated them for their hard work and wished them success in all of their future endeavors.

"These contests help children improve their knowledge, analytical skills and self-confidence, empowering them to become better citizens of tomorrow," Dr. Chitturi said. In the tradition of North South Foundation, every participant is a winner. 

North South Foundation has been providing a platform for children of Indian origin to hone their skills in spelling, science, math, geography, brain bee and other subjects. North South Foundation provides coaching and conducts workshops in these subjects to help students excel. The students have the opportunity to participate in various educational bees at the regional level at any of the 90 North South Foundation chapters across the country. Qualified contestants then move on to the more competitive National Finals usually held in August-September of each year. The coaching and educational bees have prepared the North South Foundation students to successfully compete in National level competitions such as the Scripps Spelling Bee, National Geographic Bee, MATHCOUNTS, Science Bowl, US Brain Bee and others.  North South Foundation has a winning track record in these competitions.

Ten of the 16 spellers who made it to the Primetime Finals of the Scripps spelling bee were all North South Foundation students, including runner-up Naysa Modi. Their final ranks are: Karthik Nemmani (1^st place), Naysa Modi (2^nd place), Jashun Paluru (3^rd place tie), Abhijay Kodali (3^rd place tie), Navneeth Murali (5^th place), Sravanth Malla (6^th place), Anisha Rao (10^th place tie), Tara Singh (10^th place tie), Shruthika Padhy (10^th place tie), and Rohan Roja (10^th place tie). It is also worth noting that 19 of the 41 semi-finalists were from North South.

About North South Foundation

Established in 1989 and entirely run by volunteers, North South Foundation's mission is to develop human resources by giving scholarships to brilliant but most needy students in India entering college, regardless of religion, gender, caste or creed; to promote excellence in human endeavor by organizing educational contests for children in the United States; and to help people achieve success by giving hope to those who may have none.  The Foundation has awarded over 20,000 college scholarships in India so far. In the US, more than 190,000 contestants have benefited from its educational competitions over the last 26 years.  More recently, the Foundation has been experimenting with educational contests in India with great potential to benefit hundreds of thousands of children. For more information, visit www.northsouth.org.

Contact:  Jatin V Mehta, Director of Media & Outreach 
                856-203-4548 / [email protected]

SOURCE North South Foundation