D15 champ takes second place at north suburban spelling bee

Rutvi Parikh, a fifth grader at Virginia Lake School and the 2015 District 15 Spelling Bee champ, has advanced to the regional competition that could send her to nationals.

Earlier this year, Rutvi won the District 15 Spelling Bee, which qualified her to compete in the Suburban Cook Northern Area Spelling Bee. That contest was held Tuesday, February 3, at Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth, where she took second place.

Rutvi’s second-place finish qualified her to advance to the Regional Championship ISC Scripps Spelling Bee, which will be held Thursday, February 19, at McClure Junior High School in Western Springs. There she will compete against the top-three finishers from the Northern, Southern, and Western Suburban Cook Spelling Bees for an all-expenses-paid trip to the Washington, D.C. area at the end of May to participate in the 88th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.