10-year-old DeKalb County student, Sary Dharavane, is Georgia’s Spelling Bee champion

DEKALB COUNTY, GA–Austin Elementary School will hold a ceremony on Wednesday, May 8, to honor Sarv Dharavane, a fourth grader at the Dunwoody school who won the 63rd Annual Georgia Association of Educators State Spelling Bee in March.

As the winner, Sary has earned an all-expenses-paid trip to National Harbor, Maryland, where he will compete in the nationally-televised Scripps National Spelling Bee, beginning with preliminaries on May 28 and concluding with the finals on May 30.

Twenty students ranging from 10 to14 years old, from 3rd through 8th grades, competed in the state Spelling Bee.

After over 400 words over 18 rounds (including vocabulary), Sary emerged as the winner. He, along with runner-up, and last year’s champion, 14-year-old, 8th grader Matthew Baber from Rising Star Middle School in Fayette County, will both represent Georgia in the Scripps National Spelling Bee Championships in National Harbor, Maryland, May 26-June 1, 2024.

In the 18th round, which included words such as metachronous, pithecoloy and recrudescent, Matthew received the word “collabent” but unfortunately misspelled it.  Sarv was given the word “Seoul,” which he spelled correctly, and under the rules for the final two spellers, had to then spell an additional word correctly.  That word was “dashiki,” which he also spelled correctly and was subsequently crowned the 2024 Georgia State Spelling Bee champion.

“When I spelled my championship word right, I was non-plussed and elated at the same time,” said Sarv.  “I love words, and back in November, when I heard there was a classroom spelling bee, I thought, ‘Why not?'”  “I couldn’t have done this without my teachers at Austin Elementary and GAE.  Last but not least, I cannot thank my parents enough for helping me so much.”

Sary not only won the State Spelling Bee Championship but also the Georgia State Technology Competition in Project Programming.

Matthew said, “I am looking forward to nationals.  This year, I will definitely need to prepare more.  Vocabulary will be a challenge, so I have to review more word lists.  However, I cannot ignore spelling, so I will review stems and language rules as well.”

GAE President Lisa Morgan said, “Congratulations to both Sarv and Matthew and all of these great young spellers.  It is a joy to see how far they’ve come and the self-confidence they’ve exhibited in handling the pressure and competition. We of course wish the best of luck to our two spellers and their families as they travel to Maryland and the national championship.”

Pictured: Austin Elementary School student Sary Dharavane holds his big trophy as Georgia’s Spelling Bee champion.    Photo provided by DeKalb County School District.