Sarv Dharavane, a sixth grader at Peachtree Middle School, will represent the DeKalb County School District and Georgia in The Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., this May after winning his third consecutive Georgia Association of Educators State Spelling Bee title, according to a Mar. 30 announcement.
Dharavane’s repeated success highlights his commitment and the support he has received from his school community. His victory came after 22 rounds of spelling and vocabulary challenges, where he secured first place by correctly spelling “simal,” which is an East Indian silk-cotton tree known for producing fiber that is inferior to kapok.
“I am extremely happy. More like ecstatic. I’m completely in nirvana!” Dharavane said after the competition. “I’ve come a long, long, LONG way to get here. I could have only done this because of every single person who has helped me along the way, including my principal and family.”
In addition to earning the chance to compete nationally for a third year in a row, Dharavane received several prizes: an all-expenses-paid trip to the national bee, $1,000 cash prize, an Apple iPad Mini, a $50 gift card, subscriptions to online educational resources including Encyclopedia Britannica and News-O-Matic for one year each, an online subscription dictionary access pass, a U.S. Mint Proof Set for 2026, and a GAE Bee Champion lapel pin.
The upcoming Scripps National Spelling Bee will be held May 24-29 at National Harbor in Maryland with 243 top spellers from across the country participating.