State Farm, the big insurance company, has announced the launch of the 2008 State Farm South Asian Spelling Bee. From a note from Rahul Walia of Touchdown Media[rahul at touchdown-media.com], who's organizing the event:
Dear All,
I am proud to announce the launch of Touchdown Media’s flagship event: The 2008 State Farm South Asian Spelling Bee contest in association with Western Union and Makemytrip.com
The contest is open to children of up to 14 years of age.
Speller’s parents or guardians can register them at www.southasianspellingbee.com for participation.
The contest is being held at 8 regional centers across the US and spellers can chose any one of the centers for participation.
For more details and registration, please visit www.southasianspellingbee.com
It's another example of a mainstream U.S. company spending its marketing dollars in the South Asian community.
As you know, desi kids have had a lot of success at the "real" spelling bee, the Scripps National Spelling Bee (taking place this year on May 29-30 in DC). For example, in 2005, four of the top slots were won by Anurag Kashyap, Aliya Deri, Samir Sudhir Patel and Rajiv Tarigopula.
Just yesterday, 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal of Nebraska won the $25,000 first prize in a similar contest, the National Geographic Bee (a test of geography, rather than spelling). See coverage in Ultrabrown and AP.
So let's have some fun with this. Complete this sentence:
"A spelling bee just for South Asian kids is like..."
I'll get us started:
...a marathon just for runners from Kenya.
Post yours in the comments section below.
UPDATE: Sameer Mishra wins 2008 National Spelling Bee on ABC/ESPN.
