Austin Elementary School fourth grade student Sarv Dharavane was perfect – from “mischievous” to “dashiki” – as he won the Georgia State Spelling Bee on March 15, beating out second place finisher Matthew Baber after six head-to-head rounds.
During the course of 400 words and 18 rounds, the 10-year-old beat 19 other students and was crowned the winner of the 63rd Annual Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) State Spelling Bee. He, along with Baber, an eighth grader at Rising Star Middle School in Fayette County who was last year’s champion, will represent Georgia in the Scripps National Spelling Bee Championships in National Harbor, Md., May 26-June 1.
The road to the championship started last November in Sarv’s classroom at Austin Elementary in Dunwoody.
“I thought it would be fun, so I started looking at the school’s spelling bee list and studied the dictionary,” Sarv said. “The first word I spelled was ‘mischievous.’”
After winning the school title, Sarv moved onto the county competition, then the region followed by the state bee in March. Through all the competitions, Sarv never missed a word. Each time he advanced, he would double his efforts to gain more knowledge of word structure, language patterns and homonyms.
“I just kept on preparing, but in overdrive,” he said. “Right now, I’m studying two or three hours a day.”
During the state championship in the 18th round, Baber misspelled the word “collabent,” meaning collapsed in the middle. Sarv then was given the word “Seoul” which he spelled correctly and under the rules for the final two spellers, had to then spell another word correctly. That word was “dashiki.”
“I had no idea what a ‘dashiki’ was, so I was going on a wing and a prayer,” Sarv said. “I wasn’t sure whether I should double the ‘k’ but in the end, I got the answer right.”
Now that he’s progressed to the national contest, the fourth grader said he will again increase his studies in anticipation of the stiffer competition.
Sarv’s mother, Shilpa Tupe, said her son was a natural reader from an early age and is up for the challenge.
“He was reading at the age of 2-½ and he just kept reading bigger and bigger books,” she said. “I’m so proud of him and his hard work.”
Sarv said he’s not satisfied with qualifying on the highest level and has a “master plan” for winning the National Spelling Bee.
“I’ve got four more chances after this, so I would like to make it to the quarterfinals or the semi-finals this year, and then go on to win it all next time,” he said.
Sarv said he is grateful for the support provided by his family, fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Abigail Delfino, the school’s principal, Avis Mooneyham, and the PTO.
Watch the last six rounds of the state spelling bee as the two semifinalists go head-to-head.