Parchuri wins regional spelling bee

Raana Parchuri of Upper St. Clair was crowned champion of the 2023 Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee on March 4 at Robert Morris University. The Fort Couch Middle School seventh-grader now advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Parchuri is no stranger to the spelling bee. He won the regional competition in 2020 as a fourth-grader. In 2021, he finished second.

Bee Week 2023 will take place from May 28 to June 2 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Bee Week is a weeklong experience for spellers and their families that includes special events, educational workshops, and excursions into Washington, D.C.

The national competition will begin with preliminaries on May 30 and conclude with the finals on June 1.

Parchuri qualified for the regional spelling bee by finishing first at the school-level event. Other school-level winners from USC included: Jasneh Kaur, Baker Elementary School; Viktor Misic, Eisenhower Elementary School; Sailee Kumar, Streams Elementary School; and Luka Beric, Boyce Middle School.

Because Beric was unable to attend the regional event, the first runner-up from Boyce, Aanya Jha, qualified for and competed in the Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee.

The USC school-level spelling bees, open to students in grades 4-8, were sponsored by the Parent Teacher Council and each school’s parent organization. The Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee is open to students through grade 8 from throughout a 26-county region.

In addition to spelling, Parchuri excels in mathematics. He is one of 11 USC middle school students who recently earned a perfect score in the annual CalcuSolve competition, sponsored by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.