Meadowbrook students welcome National Spelling Bee champion home

After winning the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on June 2 in Washington, D.C., Anurag Kashyap of Poway is definitely a “champ” by almost anyone’s definition.

Just ask his fellow students, teachers and Principal Cathy Brose at Meadowbrook Middle School, where he got a hero’s welcome Monday after returning from his Washington trip.

The 13-year-old’s name is practically a household word now that he has appeared on national television and been interviewed by Katie Couric of the “Today” show and many others.

Despite the notoriety, he remains relatively unassuming and a “good kid,” Brose said.

The youngster is now the nation’s top speller. He also won about $28,000 in cash and prizes, most of which will go toward college, he said.

Too bad his favorite author, Noah Webster of dictionary fame, isn’t around to hear how much the youngster loves discovering words, finding out their origin and what they mean. His favorite dictionary is getting a little dog-eared these days.

That thirst for knowledge coupled with his natural abilities and hours of studying vocabulary put Kashyap into a league of his own, said his coach and teacher Jim Dyer.

“He’s just an all-around good student,” Dyer said. “He’s good at everything.”

During Monday’s welcome, Poway Unified officials, Poway Mayor Mickey Cafagna, Poway Chamber CEO Toni Kraft and representatives from Congressman Duncan Hunter and state Senator Dennis Hollingsworth’s office joined Brose and Dyer in honoring Kashyap for his hard work and dedication.

Deputy Superintendent John Collins told Meadowbrook students that he admired Kashyap’s determination.

“He kept his heart in it,” Collins said. “You’re a perfect example — if you really want it bad enough, you can do it.”

But it was clearly the sight of Meadowbrook friends that brought the brightest smile to Kashyap’s face. When he declined making a speech, it was obvious that he wanted to enjoy the crowd and being “home.”

Banners flew while students clapped and roared their approval several times during the early morning assembly out on the campus quad. And the school band played “We Are the Champions” by Queen and other spirited tunes.

Students Noelle Thomas and Kayla Acosta, both seventh-graders, said the buzz on campus was tremendous last Thursday after everyone heard by e-mail, via the Internet or using other sources that Anurag won the title.

“We cheered right in class,” Acosta said.

“Someone from our school won the spelling bee,” Thomas said. “We were really happy that it was someone we knew.”

Winning the national bee was a personal victory for Kashyap, who stayed focused and let others — even his circle of Internet spelling whiz kids from last year’s bee — quiz him for months prior to the competition.

“It was a spark that started during last year’s competition that kept going,” Kashyap told Pomerado Newspapers about encouragement from his friends. “We really supported each other.”

Earlier this year the youngster took first place in the regional spelling bee in San Diego, but that was just the culmination of a spelling bee walk of fame that started when Kashyap entered his first Poway Unified competition as a fourth-grader at Valley Elementary School in Poway.

The following year, he aced Poway Unified’s spelling bee, which set him on the path to the national level. He took 47th place during last year’s bee in Washington, D.C.

But he entered other challenges such as the national geography bee in Sacramento this spring. He took 11th place in that competition and also found time for local math competitions.

The two-day bee ended on June 2 when Kashyap spelled “appoggiatura” — a type of musical note — correctly.

He recalls tracing the word with his fingers on the back of his entry placard, “because it’s important to visualize the word,” he said.

“I knew I got it right away,” Kashyap said. “I wanted to run to my dad, but waited for the judge to nod ‘yes’ before I left the stage.”

His dad, Chandra Roy, and mother Archana Kashyap accompanied their son to the Washington competition. During most of the event, his mother was so nervous that she had to wait outside the hall.

Now that he’s home in Poway, Kashyap has started to relax after all the intense studying for the past months followed by the hectic schedule of interviews on network television in the last few days.

“I want to keep doing well in school,” Kashyap said. “Now I have time to make my work even better.”

Next year he will be a freshman at Rancho Bernardo High School. Maybe he can focus more on his real passion, science, or continue to improve his math, which is getting easier all the time, he said.

And some day, he envisions himself at Cal Tech or possibly MIT getting a degree in computer science or some related field, but that’s a few years away, he said.

Meanwhile, he loves to play tennis. But he won’t give up his curiosity about words any time soon. He just wants to have some fun.