Beginning in the fall, students quietly compete in spelling bees, working their way through competitions at the school, district, and regional levels – with the best of the best earning a place in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Starting in 1925, the National Spelling Bee began as a contest pulled together by nine different newspapers across the country. Each newspaper held local competitions in their area, and the top speller from each of the nine regions was sent to Washington D.C. for the National Spelling Bee. According to the Scripps National Spelling Bee website, over 11 million students across America participate, at some level, in this amazing competition.
Aurora student Vikram Raju from Aurora Quest Academy, was one of these 11 million students starting their journey this fall. Nine months later, he vied against 234 other spelling champs from around the United States. After enduring a grueling 18 rounds of competition, followed by a history-making spell-off, Aurora’s very own Vikram Raju is the Runner Up in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee!
In recognition of his hard work and success, the Aurora Public Library has declared Vikram Raju an Honorary Aurora Scholar and named him Honorary Junior Library Director for a day. To mark the occasion, Vikram and his family will be recognized by Mayor Mike Coffman and other city leadership at a private event on Friday, June 9, which will be followed by a library tour. This tour will take Vikram behind the scenes of the Central Library, where he’ll discover how new books and other materials magically appear on our shelves. He will also meet our very own Bookie Monster (otherwise known as the Automated Handling Machine), while discovering other great Library Mysteries!
Join us in congratulating Vikram Raju, a young man with a B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T future!