Kavya Shivashankar finally won the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition for 2009. "Laodicean" was the word that clinched her the victory as other children could not spell it correctly.
Other words she spelled correctly include "hydrargyrum", "blancmange" "baignoire", "huisache", "ecossaise", "diacoele", "bouquiniste", "isogoge" and "phoresy". Finally, 13-year-old Kavya correctly spelled "Laodicean", after all the others misspelled it. The word means "indifferent or lukewarm", especially in matters of religion or politics.
Kavya had finished tenth, eighth and fourth over the last three years. A budding neurosurgeon, Kavya enjoys playing the violin, bicycling, swimming and learning Indian classical dance. Her role model is Nupur Lala, the 1999 champion featured in the documentary "Spellbound".
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