8th grader crowned regional spelling bee champ for the third time

April 3, 2024

Upper St. Clair eighth grader Raana Parchuri was crowned Champion of the 74th annual Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee – marking his third time winning the regional event. The spelling bee was held on Sunday, March 24, 2024, at Point Park University.

In addition to this year’s title, Raana previously won in 2020 as a fourth grader, and then again last year as a seventh grader. In 2021, he finished second. This is the first time a student has become a three-time Champion since 1999.

Raana, a student at Fort Couch Middle School, will represent the Western Pennsylvania region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. The national competition will begin with the Preliminaries on Tuesday, May 28, and conclude with the Finals on Thursday, May 30.

Raana qualified for the regional spelling bee by finishing first at the school-level event. Other school-level winners from Upper St. Clair included Adelyn Stockton, Baker Elementary School; Eli Karambelkar, Eisenhower Elementary School; Alexander Li, Streams Elementary School; and Luka Beric, Boyce Middle School.

The Upper St. Clair school-level spelling bees, open to students in grades 4 – 8, were sponsored by the USC Parent Teacher Council and each school’s parent organization. The Western Pennsylvania Spelling Bee is open to students through grade 8 from throughout a 26-county region.

This year, 77 local students participated in the Western Pennsylvania regional qualifier, and on March 24, the 16 finalists in the regional bee spelled for more than two hours. The winning word was “phenology.”