2009

The 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 28th, 2009. It was held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in D.C., and 293 spellers participated.

Kavya Shivashankar joined the Word Panel in 2022 and also serves as a Judge for the National Competition.

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About the 82nd Bee

Champion

Kavya Shivashankar

Olathe, Kansas

Kavya Shivashankar, age 13, sponsored by The Olathe News, won the $30,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “Laodicean.”

Kavya served on the Bee Week College Crew before joining the Word Panel in 2022. She is currently an OB/GYN planning to continue her medical training as a maternal-fetal medicine fellow in New York. She earned her M.D. from Thomas Jefferson University and a B.A. in neuroscience and behavior from Columbia University.

Location

Grand Hyatt Washington

at the Independence Ballroom

Winning Word

Laodicean(adj)

lay-ahd-uh-SEE-un

lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.

This word consists of a Greek geographical name that went into Latin plus an English combining form.

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

  • Mary Brooks
  • Blake Giddens
  • Dr. Ed Low
  • Dr. Michelle M. Mehta

Pronouncers

  • Dr. Jacques Bailly
  • Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTERS

  • Connor Aberlé
  • Basim Abielmona
  • Elizabeth Adetiba
  • Kayla Albert
  • Eliette Albrecht
  • Daniel Allegar
  • Eunique Allen
  • Jake Annal
  • Kennyi Aouad
  • Rexon Apurado
  • Austin Auger
  • Ramya Auroprem
  • Jacob Babione
  • Nana Adjoa Baiden-Amissah
  • Rohit Balachandar
  • Kyle Barron
  • Alexandra Bartlett
  • Rachel Bayless
  • Legan Bayombo
  • Christopher Bayston
  • Tianna Beckley
  • Caroline Bell
  • Christina Benitscheck
  • Nicholas Betancourt
  • Timothy Bill
  • David Bippes
  • Rachel Blakemore
  • Lukas Blakkan-Esser
  • Katlyn Bohrer
  • Reese Boyd
  • Nolan Boyer
  • Mark Brand
  • Keiko Bridwell
  • Claudine Broussard
  • Morgan Brown
  • Franchesca Cabal-Ugaz
  • Sean Calhoun
  • Conrad Camellino
  • Thomas Camp
  • Julianna Canabal-Rodríguez
  • Anna Rose Canzano
  • Joshua Casquejo
  • Hannah Cassidy
  • Andrew Cerise
  • Derek Chan
  • Sidharth Chand
  • Neetu Chandak
  • Aditya Chemudupaty
  • Margie Christ
  • So-Young Chung
  • Laura Churchill
  • Morgan Colp
  • Duncan Crooks
  • Anna Crutchfield
  • Alexander Csorba
  • Rachael Cundey
  • Sarah Daguio
  • Rohan Dasika
  • Lea Davis
  • Alexis Davis
  • Santos DeBarros
  • Juan del Valle Coello
  • Tino Delamerced
  • Julia Denniss
  • Abeni Deveaux
  • Gabriela Diaz
  • Rachael Dickey
  • Adam Dinkledine
  • Patrick Dockery
  • Jonathan Donas
  • Samuel Dowlen
  • Kevin Drew
  • Adrianna Ellison
  • Madeline Embrey
  • Breanna Escamilla
  • Hannah Evans
  • William Feng
  • Tiana Ferrante
  • Emily Fletcher
  • John Flinn
  • Meredith Foulke
  • Elliott Frankfother
  • Adam Freymiller
  • Molly Futrell
  • Laura Galbus
  • Kira Gallancy
  • Madeline Gallard
  • Ben Gamble
  • Kyra Gardner
  • Miguel Gatmaytan
  • Bradford Geter
  • Crystal Gibbons
  • Conner Gibbs
  • Rosa Gibson
  • John Gilger II
  • Morgan Gilliam
  • Marizette Gonzales
  • Amy Gormley
  • Zachary Griesbach
  • Anna Beatrice Grimaldo
  • Django Grootmyers
  • Andrew Grose
  • Daniel Halvorson
  • Brittany Hamling
  • Amanda Hardwick
  • Thomas Harkins
  • Stephen Hartline
  • Andrew Haskins
  • Sriram Hathwar
  • Brandon Healey
  • Tussah Heera
  • Brent Henderson
  • Brett Hill
  • Drew Hodson
  • Jonathan Hohstadt
  • Deborah Horton
  • Annie Howard
  • Se Young Hwang
  • Ellis Iacono
  • Tony Incorvati
  • Jonathan Isaac
  • Leah Isip
  • Dylan Jackson
  • Josef Jackson
  • Meadow Jackson
  • Shayne Jacobs
  • Jeremy Johnson
  • Zachary Johnson
  • George Jose
  • Christopher Jury
  • Drew Kantor
  • Josephine Kao
  • Gina Kapadia
  • Emily Keaton
  • Mitchel Kessler
  • Waleed Khan
  • Monica Kim
  • Lauren Kirk
  • Ryne Kisch
  • Cory Klingsporn
  • Amanda Klovekorn
  • Raheem Knight
  • Emma Kolinsky
  • Henry Korous
  • Sanjay Kottapalli
  • Sawyer Krueger
  • Michalina Kulesza
  • Vignessh Kumar
  • Emilio Lachaine-Robertson
  • Émilie Lafleur
  • Serena Laine-Lobsinger
  • Bobby Larsen
  • Anna Lawrence
  • Andrew Lay
  • Leo Lee
  • Briley Lewis
  • Audrey Liu
  • George Liu
  • Gina Liu
  • Jacob Lobrot
  • Andrew Logsdon
  • Jacob Longmeyer
  • Audrey Lothspeich
  • Lily Lubin
  • Juan Domingo Malana
  • Rahul Malayappan
  • Joseph Maluyao
  • William Mason
  • Sam Matherly
  • Christian McCarthy
  • Rachael McDaniel
  • Joshua McFall
  • Bryson McKee
  • Nora McVinnie
  • Alina Meador
  • Laryn Meadows
  • Vincent Medina
  • Neel Mehta
  • Quinn Meyer
  • Samantha Mihalik
  • Shari-Jo Miller
  • Michaela Minock
  • Ryan Morelock
  • Kyle Mou
  • Adrian Muhajarine
  • Talmage Nakamoto
  • Andrew Napora
  • Sai Nelanuthala
  • Carly Nelson
  • Laura Newcombe
  • Amy Ng
  • Jack Nolan
  • Tegan Odland
  • Blaise Oliver
  • Imogen Page
  • Mouctika Paluri
  • Esther Park
  • Aishwarya Pastapur
  • Rahil Patel
  • Tanay Patri
  • Luxi Peng
  • Veronica Penny
  • Michael Peters
  • Katelin Peters
  • David Phan
  • Sengrithey Pich
  • Elizabeth Platz
  • Tiffany Plug
  • Zaib Qayyum
  • Kun Qiao
  • Bianca Quintanilla
  • Aaron Rabinowitz
  • Avvinash Radakrishnan
  • Akshay Raghuram
  • Shyamala Ramakrishna
  • Eesha Ramanujam
  • Auguste Ramos
  • Andie Reidy
  • Daniel Rosenberg
  • Corey Rowe
  • Sukanya Roy
  • Tim Ruiter
  • Eleanor Runde
  • Megan Rush
  • Nicholas Rushlow
  • Sowsan Salaam
  • Harshit Sarin
  • Sonia Schlesinger
  • Katherine Schumacher
  • Jonathan Schut
  • Paro Sen
  • Jiwon Seo
  • Cameron Shabahang
  • Aria Sharon
  • Alexis Sharp
  • Melanie Shea
  • Kavya Shivashankar
  • Vaibhav Shrishail
  • Kira Simpson
  • Siraj Sindhu
  • Rajat Singh
  • Shevelle Six
  • Jacqueline Smedley
  • Sabrina Smith
  • Christian Smith
  • Jazmine Smith
  • Caroline Snowden
  • Michael Spors
  • Shantanu Srivatsa
  • Gabriella Stapel
  • Thomas Steele
  • Madeline Stevens
  • Katie Stone
  • Elysa Stone
  • Myung Wan Suh
  • Michael Sun
  • Jessica Swarner
  • Anja Beth Swoap
  • Gianna Tarquinio
  • Mattie Thompson
  • Pamela Torola
  • Rose Tracy
  • Andrew Traylor
  • Amy Treber
  • Tynishia Tufu
  • Liam Twight
  • John Umble
  • Joshua Ursua
  • Paul Uzzo
  • Yulkendy Valdez
  • Nivesh Varma
  • Paige Vasseur
  • Vaibhav Vavilala
  • Anamika Veeramani
  • Victoria Wang
  • Timothy Webb
  • Sage Weber
  • Talia Weisberg
  • Alex Wells
  • Michael Whalon
  • Brandon Whitehead
  • Clara Wicoff
  • Christian Wilks
  • Caroline Willett
  • Derek Williams
  • Megan Willmon
  • Yeyoung Won
  • Anna Wooten
  • Larissa Woryk
  • Zachary Zagorski
  • Kevin Zhang
  • Mayee Zhu
  • Lindsey Zimmer

* Winner
** Runner-Up