Briarwood Elementary sixth grader Jiya Bhavsar will continue what has become a family tradition when she takes the stage at the Kansas Sunflower Spelling Bee on March 22.
Jiya, the recent winner of the Johnson County spelling bee, will make her second trip to the state bee, which is in Salina this year. She also won the county contest in 2023 as a fourth grader (and finished as runner-up last year).
If she keeps on with the winning streak at the state level, she has a shot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, just like her older sister Ishya, who made it as far as the national semifinals as an eighth grader in 2021. Ishya was also a two-time county winner.
Now that Ishya has aged out of the Scripps bee (contestants cannot be older than 15 or past eighth grade), Jiya must carry the torch.
Jiya’s interest in orthography goes back to kindergarten, when she watched her older sister practice.
“I just wanted to be like my sister,” she said. But after she got involved, she realized, “I liked it either way.”
Jiya says she studies spelling year-round, but, “I kick it up a notch after summer break when we get the word list.”
The bee’s preparatory word list is a starting point, she said. But after a contest has gone through enough rounds, it’s not unusual to start seeing some words that are not on the list.
It helps to study language spelling patterns, she says, since many words have roots in other languages. But Jiya said she most enjoys spelling and learning about the words and their definitions.
She does admit to getting nervous, but always feels like the competitions are fun.
That said, she admits to a bit of superstition. She used to have a lucky T-shirt, which she has since grown out of. Now Jiya carries a small bee-shaped charm in her pocket.
Noopur Pathak, Jiya and Ishya’s mom, said both girls developed an early love of reading.
Ishya, “loved reading like crazy,” and Jiya started reading very early because of her big sister’s example, Pathak said.
Pointing them toward spelling seemed a natural fit.
The Johnson County Spelling Bee was held February 8 with 76 students competing. (The event is separate from the Olathe Spelling Bee, held by the Olathe School District each year. Trail Middle School eighth grader Adele Gibbens won the Olathe competition earlier this month.)
Jiya conquered the county bee with the word “acetaminophen.”
The runner up and state bee alternate is Purvik Byregowda, from Pleasant Ridge Middle School, in the Blue Valley School District.
