2008 - ScrippsScripps

About the 81st Bee

Champion

Sameer Mishra

West Lafayette, Indiana

Sameer Mishra, age 13, sponsored by the Journal & Courier, won the $30,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “guerdon.”

Sameer earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics from Columbia University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an investor at Ananym Capital Management.

Location

Grand Hyatt Washington

at the Independence Ballroom

Winning Word

guerdon_(n)

GUR-dun

something that one has earned or gained : a reward : a recompense : a requital.

This word is from a German word that went to French then English.

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

Mary Brooks
Blake Giddens
Dr. Sandra C. Harrell
Dr. Ed Low
Dr. Balu Natarajan
Dr. Michelle M. Mehta
James G. Lowe
Barrie Trinkle

Pronouncers

Dr. Jacques Bailly
Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTERS

Christian Ackmann
Austin Ahlstrom
Neil Alacha
Mariel Andersen
Jacob Annal
Kennyi Aouad
Carly Arnold
Easun Arunachalam
James Bailey
Katharine Bailey
Xavier Barnes
Natasha Begay
Brittany Belkiewitz
Russ Bian
Andrew Bicigo
David Bippes
Rosalie Blacklock
Samara Blakeney
Curtis Bogetti
Jeffrey Bridges
Keiko Bridwell
Austin Brinkley
Morgan Brown
Emma Brownlie
Gillian Butdorf
Peter Caballes
Julianna Canabal-Rodriguez
Joshua Caplinger
Marissa Carlson
Hannah Cassidy
Rachel Castle
Courtney Chambers
Sidharth Chand
Neetu Chandak
Ajay Chatrath
Shradha Chhabria
Hannah Chi
So-Young Chung
Catherine Cloetta
Joshua Cohen
Caleb Cohen
Catherine “Cat” Cojocaru
Katelyn Colter
Andrew Cooper
Natalie Cosens
Elyse Cox
Molly Crawford
Jackson Crist
Kaylee D’Amico
Aldrin D’silva
Pierce Dageforde
Priyanka Damarla
Austin Davis
Nicolas de Leon
Robertha Dean-McIntosh
Santos DeBarros
Anna Delamerced
Qian (Cathy) Deng
Emily Dick
Bethany Dickey
Anqi Dong
Samuel Dowlen
Kate Dubis
Wesley Ducote
Michael Dugan
Sade Dunbar
John Michael Eaton
Tessa Eckley
Yassine El Yousfi
Adrianna Ellison
Joy Endicott
Amanda Espericueta
Matthew Evans
Shakeika Everett
Baron Fenwick
Connor Flexman
Trevor Fonvergne
Destiny Franklin
Kendra Frey
Matt Gabriele
Swathi Ganesh
Ross Garrity
April Gaydos
Nick Gellerman
Hannah Gerdes
Crystal Gibbons
Ross Gibson
Michael Girbino
Mallika Govindan
Nicholas Greatens
Anna Beatrice Grimaldo
James Guerra
Mylieneth Guiang
Sachith Gullapalli
Adrian Gunawan
Stephanie Guzmán
Ezekiel Haenelt
Audrey Hale
Deanna Hambleton
Scott Harrell
Stephen Hartline
Sriram Hathwar
Hannah Henderson
Brent Henderson
Grace Hernandez
Erika Hill
Jonathan Hohstadt
Austin Hoke
Anna Hughes
Lance Hungar
Julie Huttemann
Anthony “Tony” Incorvati
Anahita Iyer
Jahnavi Iyer
Torey Jackson
Meadow Jackson
Arushi Jauhari
Martha Jessee
Willie Johnson
Kaitlyn Johnston
Shiva Kangeyan
Josephine Kao
Katherine Kappelmann
Sathwik Katragadda
Changlin Ke
Seth Keller
Keertan Kini
Cory Klingsporn
Matthew Koh
Anne-Marie Kommers
Allison Koontz
Sanjay Kottapalli
Maria Isabel Kubabom
Lauren LaBaumbard
Dan LaChapelle
Nick Lade
Émilie Lafleur
Elizabeth Lagatta
Serena Laine-Lobsinger
Victoria Lan
Karen Laska
Cheyenne Lawrence
Jordan Lay
Andrew Lay
Hunter Lehmann
He Li
Shannon Lin
Serene Macaraig
Marie Mach
Rahul Malayappan
Angela Mamaril
Matthew Marley
Nicole Martin
Cherry Mathis
Tisya Mavuram
Jason Mayer
Brian Mazurek
Alexis McCall
Joshua McFall
Bryson McKee
Vincent Medina
Jacob Meggesto
Christian Menendez
Quinn Meyer
Samantha Mihalik
Calvin Miller
Maggie Millican
Andrea Mae Mirasol
Sameer Mishra
Nelson Moore
Kyle Mou
Ashwin Nair
Talmage Nakamoto
Samia Nawaz
Nithin Nedumthakady
Thomas North
Timothy Nowak
Katie Nye
Megan O’Brien
Tegan Odland
Imogen Page
Mouctika Paluri
Tommy Panek
Mee Jin Park
Erin Parker
Allyn Pasiliao
Priya Patel
Ashley Peltier
Veronica Penny
Austin Pineda
Rachel Pinkerton
Cheyenne Plaster
Jeremy Pople
Karla Quezada
Bianca Quintanilla
Avvinash Radakrishnan
Anjali Raghuram
Emily Randall
Scott Remer
Meghan Reynolds
Chris Rice
Jennifer Riedford
Megan Ring
Nicholas Riordan
Andrew Risinger
Keith Roberts III
Nicholas Rushlow
Danielle Sahud
Rebecca Scally
Hannah Schill
Tristan Schrot
Claudia Schulze
Jonathan Schut
Pamela Self
Jiwon Seo
Megan Settle
Sylvia Shacker
Nabil Shaikh
Jessica Shakesprere
Akshat Shekhar
Kavya Shivashankar
Breanna Siemens
Chris Sigurdson
Madison Simpson
Siraj Sindhu
Gaurav Sirdeshpande
Sathiyan Sivakumaran
Isaac Skarstedt
Jake Sliman
Rose Sloan
Jake Smith
Alec Smith
Charles Smith
Rebecca Snodgrass
Gina Solomito
Justin Song
Raymond Soriano
Shantanu Srivatsa
Rachel Stadder
Stephanie Stancell
Samantha Stewart
Caitlyn Stewart
Elysa Stone
Walker Storz
Bethany Strom
Michelle-Ann Tan
Andrew Tan
Emily Temple-Wood
Anthony Tenney
Ashley Terry
Tia Thomas
JoAnn Thomas-Lewis
Christian Thompson
Carl Torola Jr.
Rose Tracy
Mark Travor
Grace Tsai
Logan Turner
Joshua Derek Ursua
Adam Van Buren
Vaibhav Vavilala
Kaitlyn Victor
Darcy Vines
Michael Viola
Katelyn Voss
Kara Walla
Mikayla Walsh
Gil Walzer
Cody Wang
Caitlin Wardell
Lacey Ware
Spencer Warriner
Maria Wasilewski
Madeline Weiner
Rebecca Willett
Drew Wilson
Brianna Wise
Mitchell Wortman
Jonathan Xu
Alan Xu
Corrine Yap
Nishat Yasmin
Lillian “Lillie” Young
Jimmy Yuan
Zachary Zagorski
Elizabeth Zhang
Mayee Zhu
Jessica Zung

* Winner
** Runner-Up