One Hoosier Remains in National Spelling Bee

A central Indiana eighth grader will compete today in the semifinal round of the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The student is among 46 spellers to advance to this point in the competition. Alekhya Ankaraju attends Carmel Middle School.

Indiana began yesterday's preliminary rounds with more than a dozen competitors. A total of 281 spellers made it to the final three days.

Finalists will be announced immediately following today's morning round of competition. Friday will be the final day of the global contest.

Profile of Alekhya Ankaraju From The Scripps National Spelling Bee

Speller No. 74, Alekhya Ankaraju

Williams Comfort Air, Carmel, Indiana

Age 13, 8th grade

School: Carmel Middle School

Hometown: Carmel, Indiana

Alekhya enjoys writing stories, and she tries to live up to the standard set by comic book greats Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. One day, she hopes to be able to create something as revolutionary as The Avengers stories were when they came out in the 1960s. When not writing, Alekhya reads as many books as possible, especially anything in The Immortal Instruments series. As a lover of science fiction and fantasy, she has a special place in her heart for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and would love to be able to travel to New Zealand to see where they were filmed. In addition to her literary interests, Alekhya is an accomplished singer and a talented musician, playing both traditional Indian classical violin and Western classical violin.

Source: Scripps National Spelling Bee