The 2015 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee Kicks off Texas Winners Announced

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Dallas :From left: 2nd Runner Up: Cristopher Cruz, Regional champ: Smriti Upadhyayula, 1st Runner Up: Rahul Karthi and Founder of the South Asian Spelling Bee – Rahul Walia

HOUSTON: Continuing its quest for the best speller in the community, the 2015 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee (www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com) traveled to Texas this past weekend with stops in Dallas and Houston. MetLife, a leading global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management, is serving as the event’s title sponsor for the seventh consecutive year.

With a huge turnout this year as well, the Bee attracted top talent as well as young and new spellers that competed for the coveted prizes and titles.

“In almost every city we are seeing a majority of new talent and fresh faces which is testimony to the fact that this brain sport is close to the community,” said Rahul Walia, Founder – South Asian Spelling Bee.

In the Dallas Regional, Smrithi Upadhyayula (13) of Coppell, Texas was the regional champ, Rahul Karthi (12) of Irving, Texas , was the first runner up, and first timer Christopher Cruz (11) of Frisco, Texas, was second runner up.

In Houston, the Dasari siblings spelt off with each other for a consecutive 12 rounds before Shobha Dasari (14) was named regional champ and brother Shourav Dasari (12) was first runner up. Abhirami Jeeyseelan (12) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana

“MetLife is pleased to serve once again as the title sponsor of the South Asian Spelling Bee competition,” said Laurel Daring, assistant vice president, Communications, MetLife Premier Client Group. “This event allows youth from across the country to test their spelling skills in a national forum and helps them gain a better understanding of how much they can achieve through hard work and dedication. For MetLife, it also underscores our commitment to serving and giving back to the South Asian community.”

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Houston:From left: Founder of the South Asian Spelling Bee – Rahul Walia, 1st Runner Up: Shourav Dasari, Champion: Shobha Dasari, 2nd Runner Up: Abhirami Jeeyaseelan

Along with MetLife, food brand Kawan is the Powered by sponsor for this event. As always, SONY Entertainment Television Asia is the exclusive broadcast partner for the MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee and will be airing the series across 120 countries.

“Kawan is proud to support this platform that helps in the overall growth of the child. We look forward to seeing this year’s talent and are happy to be part of the process to find the best speller from the South Asian community,” said Tim Tan, Director – International Business, Kawan Food, makers of the world’s most popular Roti Paratha Brand in the world – Kawan Paratha.

“Once again, we are proud to be associated with the Bee and are looking forward to showcasing the journey in the quest for the best speller. We look forward to yet another successful year.” said Jaideep Janakiram, Head of North America, Sony Entertainment Television-Asia.

The winners received cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 respectively.

Children up to 14 years of age are eligible to participate and the contest saw spellers of even 6 years of age compete and make it past a few rounds. There are 10 more cities on the anvil and for more information and to register your child, please visit www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com.

The top two winners plus one parent each from every city will be given an all expenses paid trip to NJ on August 14 for the FINALS.
SONY Entertainment Television Asia is the exclusive broadcast partner for the MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee and will be airing the series across 120 countries.

Find us on Facebook at South Asian Spelling Bee and you can follow us on our Twitter handle at Spell South Asian.

To reserve your FREE passes to the Finals, please log on to www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com and fill in your details.