India Abroad June 19, 2015 M145
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INDIA ABROAD PERSON OF THE YEAR 2014 Sriram Hathwar, center, celebrates his spelling bee victory with mother Roopa and brother Jairam.
Roopa Hathwar Mother
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aving seen two of my sons through the Scripps National Spelling Bee, we are very proud of them, and we are happy to support them in whatever they try to pursue. Jairam saw his older brother work hard and win the trophy, and he just loved it; he felt really inspired to do this. We were elated and ecstatic when Sriram won the National Bee last year. It was a long time coming — it was a dream for Sriram to win the trophy some day and we were happy to see it come true. The wider response was overwhelming too. Everybody was so supportive in the whole town of Corning; they actually had a huge banner put up at the entrance of the city that said ‘Hometown Hero Sriram Hathwar.’ They kept it up for nearly for two months. And right after he won, the local community held a reception for him, and we had nearly 200 people show up to show their support. It was really heartwarming for us. Raising Sriram as a child, I knew that he had pretty good spelling and language skills, and so when he was in first grade, he saw the regional spelling bee at the local school and said, ‘Mom I would like to try it next year if I could.’ He was in Montessori at that time, and I approached his middle school teacher to see if she would take him on, just for him to watch the competition, so that in the coming years maybe he could compete. And so, being in Montessori, they could pretty much pursue whatever their interests were, so he would sit and watch the other students, like the fifth and sixth graders, try to do the spelling. He decided that he would try it out as well, and so in second grade he won the school level after beating out the fifth and sixth graders at his school, and then went on to the regional level, where he won as well, and went to the national level in the second grade. From then on, there was no turning back. He just kept going each year, and he did better each time he went to the nationals. Initially, we were not aware of the format and the system. But once he went to the national bee for the very first time, he realized that it took several attempts for most spellers before they won the trophy. He saw that he would also have to keep trying to get to the nationals for exposure and that having prior experience matters. So he tried to go from one level to another; he tried to get more word lists; eventually, he pretty much just went through the dictionary. There all the words are available, so there is no secret to this. So going through the dictionary is exactly what he did and I think that’s what helped him most. Sriram’s curiosity and eagerness to learn new stuff — and not necessarily only in spelling because he did excel in other subjects as well — is a key aspect of his success. He placed pretty good in the geography bee, winning his school level four or five years in a row, and he has done math competitions and science competitions. So basically a thirst for knowledge, any kind of knowledge, was the most important thing. He was also very happy to share his knowledge with all his friends, so I think that is a big part of him and his learning too. Sriram stayed driven and maintained a consistent
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‘It was a dream for him to win the trophy some day’ involvement in spelling by being exposed to several different events and competitions for spelling, not just the Scripps Spelling Bee but also the local South Asian Spelling Bee and the North South Foundation’s, which happens in the summer months. Doing that kept him motivated over the summer, and then once school started, he was also into music and sports and excelled in all of those as well. I think it’s a combination of all of this and constantly learning new things — if you are in music you pick up new words there, if you are in sports you pick up more words there, all of which help in the spelling bee, so they’re all relevant to it. One thing I think of when it comes to Sriram’s exceptional spelling skills and knowledge is that he was pretty good with remembering Sanskrit verses, which I think really helped to enhance his memory ability. Also I recall that when he went to the nationals for the first time, he had gotten a perfect score in the written test to qualify, so from back then itself I knew that this kid had the potential and that if he pursued it, he could win the trophy. And he did it. In the beginning, as far as our role as a family, I initially would work with him. We would try to make word lists and I would quiz him after I came home from work. We would spend several hours each day starting in second grade, and
then pretty much until seventh grade when he became more independent. In eighth grade he was pretty much on his own: he tried to review the lists himself over and over again. But from second through seventh grade, I used to work with him as far as quizzing and trying to create word lists. Sriram is, of course, very independent and determined. These things don’t come by force at all. You cannot succeed at the spelling bee or for that matter any competition if you are not motivated or self-driven. Parents can only play a supportive role — the drive has to come from the child. We are definitely very happy and proud of both Sriram and Jairam, and we are happy that our younger one could go as far as his brother, this time being his first year on the national scene. He has a couple of more chances, and we will definitely work with him and support him in whatever way we can. In the end, it’s up to them to decide if they want to persevere to reach their goals. For the future and as far as profession goes, Sriram wants to pursue ophthalmology and he also had some success in the Diamond Challenge business competition. I don’t know if he is going to try to integrate both or pursue one over the other. Time will tell I suppose, but I think the key is passion and perseverance in whatever he chooses. Also important to note is that Sriram is just a good kid. Even most recently, when he went to the Scripps Spelling Bee last week (to see Jairam compete), I had several parents come up to ask me if I was Sriram’s mom and telling me what a sweet kid Sriram is. They felt that their kid was not known to anybody and still Sriram made them feel so special. He made sure to be attentive when they came and asked him for an autograph or phone number, and he told them, ‘Of course, I will do that for you,’ and he would sit and chat with them for a little while to make them feel good. So a lot of parents came up to me to tell me, ‘You have a wonderful child.’ We know he is a good human being, and it’s nice to hear that. There were several fourth and fifth graders who were first timers, and they were asking him how to prepare for the spelling bee, so he spent a lot of time advising them on how to get through it, what he did, what worked for him. That meant a lot to them I think. Sriram also is definitely very supportive of his younger brother’s accomplishments. He makes time for him as much as he can. Of course being brothers, they do have their moments, but for the most part they get along very well, and Sriram helped Jairam with the regional spelling bee, and then quizzed him on words on the road down to DC for the nationals. It’s a five-hour drive for us so here and there he would ask him how to spell a word and he would give little tidbits about the word, its roots, and other ways to remember it. Our younger one definitely looks up to him, and in fact, even on the day of the bee, he was like, ‘Wish me good luck, brother, because I know you are awesome and I wish I could do as well as you did.’ n Dr Roopa Hathwar is an Internal Medicine Physician at Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Corning, New York. She spoke to Chaya Babu.