Dream come true': Indian-American Ananya Vinay wins US National Spelling Bee

June 2, 2017

Oxon Hill, Jun 2: Ananya Vinay never looked all that impressed by any of the words she was given in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

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The 12-year-old from Fresno, California, showed little emotion and didn't take much time as she plowed through word after word. Sometimes she would blurt out questions, with little intonation — “Part of speech?” ''Language of origin?” — and sometimes she didn't even bother.

Unflappable to the end, Ananya seized the opportunity when her steely opponent, Rohan Rajeev, flubbed a simple-looking but obscure Scandinavian-derived word, “marram,” which means a beach grass. She calmly nailed two words in a row, ending on “marocain,” which means a type of dress fabric of ribbed crepe, to win the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.

Ananya barely cracked a smile even when her parents and younger brother stormed onto the stage to embrace her as the confetti fell. And she took time to console Rohan, who remained in his seat, wiping tears from his eyes.

“It's like a dream come true,” Ananya said as she held the trophy. “I'm so happy right now.”

She will take home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.

It was the first time since 2013 that the bee declared a sole champion. After three straight years of ties, the bee added a tiebreaker test this year, and it looked like it might come into play as Ananya and Rohan dueled for nearly 20 rounds.

Ananya was on the radar of some veteran bee watchers but didn't come in with a high profile. She participated in last year's bee but didn't make the top 50. As a sixth-grader, she could have come back for two more years, had she fallen short. Now, she'll return only in a ceremonial role to help present the trophy to next year's winner.

For Rohan, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Edmond, Oklahoma, it was his first and only time on the national stage, but he's competed for years in other bees and he sought tutelage from another Oklahoman, Cole Shafer-Ray, who finished third two years ago. Rohan's close call was even more heartbreaking.

Ananya is the 13th consecutive Indian-American to win the bee and the 18th of the past 22 winners with Indian heritage, a run that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala's victory, which was featured in the documentary “Spellbound.” Like most of her predecessors, she honed her craft in highly competitive national bees that are limited to Indian-Americans, the North South Foundation and the South Asian Spelling Bee, although she did not win either.

Mira Dedhia, trying to become the first offspring of a past competitor to win, finished third.

Before Ananya and Rohan began their lengthy duel, the primetime finals were marked by surprising eliminations of better-known spellers. Shourav Dasari, a past winner of both minor-league bees, was described as the consensus favorite as the ESPN broadcast began. He had the most swagger of the finalists, at one point spelling the word “Mogollon” as soon as he heard it and turning around to return to his seat.

He was felled in fourth place by a killer word, “Struldbrug,” that was coined by Jonathan Swift in his novel “Gulliver's Travels” and had no recognizable roots or language patterns to fall back on.

“I was honestly, absolutely shocked. It was stunning,” former speller Jacob Williamson said. “Shourav is one of the greatest spellers of all time and he's probably the best speller that never won.”

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April 28,2024

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Students in Paris blocked access to a campus building at a French university on Friday, as pro-Palestine demonstrations reach Europe.

The students occupied the central campus building of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, and dozens of others blocked its entrance, echoing protest action at American universities.

Students inspired by Gaza solidarity encampments at campuses in the United States blocked access to a campus building at the prestigious French university on Friday.

They blocked the entrance with trash cans, wooden platforms and other items.

The occupation of the Paris university campus came after police broke up a separate protest at the university’s amphitheater outside one of its Paris campuses.

Scores of student protesters gathered at the building’s windows, chanting slogans and holding placards reading “We are all Palestinians,” in defiance of administrators who students say called the police on their peers two days earlier.

Pro-Palestinian student protesters had occupied the amphitheater outside one of the university’s Paris campuses on Wednesday evening.

The US-style student protests, which began over the months-long Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, kicked off in the United States and have now spread to European capitals as well as Australia.

In the German capital Berlin, several people were arrested as police violently cleared a camp of Gaza war protesters at the German parliament.

Pro-Palestinian activists are demanding a permanent ceasefire, an end to the Israeli atrocities, and an arms embargo of the Tel Aviv regime.

The Israeli regime launched the war on Gaza on October 7 last year. The genocidal war has killed more than 34,356 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

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April 28,2024

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Campuses of several US Universities have been witnessing massive protests with the students seeking a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas. Police have arrested over 550 protesters and some universities are witnessing violent crackdown of protests by the ruthless cops. 

Law enforcement officials at the behest of college administrators have deployed tasers and tear gas against students protesters at Atlanta's Emory University, even though the protests have been largely peaceful, say activists and media personnel present at the spot.

Emil' Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies, at the University said that the scene reminded him of the civil war in Guatemala as a teenager.

"Police immediately began to force people to move. I felt like I was in a war zone, with all the police and their weapons, the rubber bullets. We were pushed away," Mr Keme told the Guardian describing what happened as soon as cops entered the Emory campus.

“Police took the student next to me, pushed an older lady nearby and then pushed me.”

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the confirmed death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. They want universities to cut their investments in everything tied to Israel and weapons that fuel the war in Gaza. That means funds run by BlackRock, Google as well as Amazon's cloud service, Lockheed Martin and even Airbnb.

Video circulated widely on social media shows two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushes her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.

Atlanta police and Georgia troopers are leading a joint operation within the campus to dismantle the tents and camps the activists have set up at the school's quadrangle. Within minutes of the authorities entering the campus, 28 people, 20 of whom were "Emory community members", had been arrested, the institute said in a statement.

The school president said that the videos of police clashing with the students "are shocking" and that he is "horrified horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions."

The university's response was likely the quickest show of police force in response to a divestment protest among the dozens nationwide that have occurred in recent weeks. It was also probably the only one where pepper balls, stun guns and rubber bullets were used.

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April 26,2024

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An Indian-origin woman studying at the prestigious Princeton University in the US is among two students arrested over pro-Palestine protests on the campus, reports student and alumni newspapers.

Tamil Nadu-born Achinthya Sivalingan and Hassan Sayed were arrested after the protesters set up tents for an encampment in a university courtyard early Thursday morning, according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW).

The two graduate students were arrested on charge of trespassing and have been "immediately barred from the campus", said Jennifer Morrill, a university spokesperson, adding that setting up tents on the campus violated university policy.

However, they have not been evicted and will be allowed into their housing, another varsity spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss confirmed to the Daily Princetonian.

Ms Sivalingam is a student of Masters in Public Affairs in International Development at Princeton while Mr Sayed is a PhD candidate there.

In a statement, Morill said the students were given "repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease the activity and leave the area" and they now face disciplinary action. After their arrest, the other protesters "voluntarily" packed away their camping gear, she added.

Hotchkiss said the university did not evict anyone on Thursday and that the university allows students barred from campus to stay in their university-owned housing.

The undergraduate students were warned against occupation and encampment exercises in an email Wednesday, according to the Daily Princetonian.

Princeton students, faculty and community members, and even outsiders were part of the demonstration, the PAW cited organizers of the protest as saying. Large, white tents were set up nearby for upcoming reunions and other events.

A student who chose to be identified only as Urvi termed the arrests as "violent", which included the students being zip-tied around their wrists. The university, however, contested this and said the officers did not use any force and the arrests were made without any resistance.

Pro-Palestine protests have rocked the top US universities as thousands of students have hit their campuses to demonstrate against the Gaza deaths due to Israel’s inhuman military operation. 

The protests, which began at Columbia University in New York, have to colleges across the country and saw hundreds of students confronting cops and raising pro-Palestine slogans. The protesters have been calling on their universities to divest from companies that profit from the Gaza war and advocate an immediate ceasefire.

Who is Achinthya Sivalingan?

1. Achinthya Sivalingan was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and was raised in Columbus, Ohio.

2. She is pursuing a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree in International Development at Princeton University. Before that, Ms Sivalingan studied world politics and economics at Ohio State University and was also an Intern at Harvard Law School. 

3. Ms Sivalingan has significant experience in policy issues, having worked with civil society organisations, the legal system, politics, movement building, and private philanthropy. Her previous roles include supporting policy and advocacy work for climate adaptation, agricultural development, and nutrition portfolios at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

4. Ms Sivalingan has worked on a congressional campaign in Ohio's third district and also contributed to land rights and policy initiatives in India at the Centre for Policy Research. 

5. She has been banned from Princeton over pro-Palestine protests and is now facing disciplinary action. 

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