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- Bee-lieve It: Faizan Zaki Wins Big
Bee-lieve It: Faizan Zaki Wins Big
Dear Hyphenly Readers,
Meet Faizan Zaki, a four-time participant in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and now the 2025 champion. In his second year as a finalist, the seventh grader from Austin, Texas, took home the historic $50,000 prize by correctly spelling éclaircissement—meaning “the clearing up of something obscure: enlightenment.”
Watch his winning moment here:
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. And while Faizan's win is historic, it’s part of a much larger story: South Asian American dominance in the Bee. Like Faizan, whose parents immigrated from southern India, 30 of the past 36 champions have been Indian American. The streak began with Nupur Lala’s iconic win in 1999, though Balu Natarajan was the first South Asian origin contestant to win back in 1985.
In 2025 alone, 7 out of the 9 finalists were of South Asian origin.
So—why do South Asian American kids do so well at the Spelling Bee?
Some might assume it’s cultural. While rote memorization is a feature of many South Asian education systems, spelling bees require more than that. Success demands an understanding of etymology, word origins, and patterns across languages—skills rooted in linguistic intuition and curiosity. Many South Asian American kids grow up bilingual or multilingual, which may help sharpen this capacity.
But that’s just part of the story.
As James Maguire, author of American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds, notes:
“I think recent Indian immigrants said to themselves, ‘Well, if one of our own can
win this quintessentially American contest, then we really want to be interested in this.’
So Indian-Americans put a lot of emphasis on it.”
For some, the Bee becomes a symbol of both excellence and assimilation—proof that you can not only succeed in America but excel in its most American traditions.
And, yes, there’s pressure.
According to some Reddit threads, spelling bees are also a source of pride and competition among Desi families. Some immigrant parents see them as a prestigious extracurricular that bolsters college applications in a system where Asian Americans often feel they must overachieve to compete.
As Pawan Dhingra writes in Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough
“Indian American parents… believed that to have a good shot at getting into a prominent university, their children would need an undeniably strong academic record to compensate for what they saw as weak networks and a lack of college legacy status.”
So why do South Asian immigrants dominate the Bee?
There’s no one answer—just an intricate mix of language, aspiration, culture, and opportunity.
Curious to learn more? Here’s a documentary on Netflix that discusses the phenomenon further:
Meanwhile, join us in congratulating Faizan Zaki!
📣 Culture Check-In: We want to hear from you!
Did your immigrant parents get you to participate in any after-school activities?If so, what was your experience? We’d love to feature your answers in next week’s newsletters. |
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🎙️ Podcast Pick of the Week
Want to hear from other immigrants learning to assimilate to American culture? Join Saadia and Hana Baba, a Sudanese-American journalist and the host of The Stoop as they discuss the burden of "positive" stereotypes, and why leaning into your roots, even privately, is an act of resistance. |
This newsletter was curated by Suhasini Patni.
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