Chandler Prep 8th Grader was the “Bees Knees” at the 2025 Great Hearts Spelling

Shriya Bhardwaj, an eighth grader from Chandler Prep, the top-ranked 6–12 school in Arizona, won the Great Hearts Arizona Spelling Bee with the word troika. She moves on to the Regional Spelling Bee with the potential to move onto the Arizona State Spelling Bee and ultimately the Scripps National Spelling Bee, who is celebrating its 100^th season of the national spelling competition.

The night was buzzing (pardon the pun) as Great Hearts Arizona held the 2025 Great Hearts Spelling Bee at the Marley Center for Performing Arts at Maryvale Prep, where fifteen exceptional spellers came to compete against each other in a battle of letters to see who would go on to represent Great Hearts in the next level of spelling competitions. To compete in the Great Hearts Spelling Bee, K-8 scholars had to first compete and win the Spelling Bee at their academies, thus making them campus champions and moving them onto this competition.

The 15 exceptional spellers included:

• Arudhya Guttipalli, 3rd Grader form Great Hearts Anthem (Lower School)
• Lenushka Siddarthan, 8th Grader from Great Hearts Anthem (Upper School)
• Rutvi Chaudhari, 2nd Grader from Archway Arete
• Zara Shaik, 5th Grader from Archway Chandler
• Vincent Kinsy, 4th Grader from Archway Cicero
• Shriya Bhardwaj, 8th Grader from Chandler Prep
• Luca Shepherd All Media, 6th Grader from Cicero Prep
• Noah Kircheimer, 4th Grader from Archway North Phoenix
• Esther Adebola, 4th Grader from Archway Lincoln
• Colby Dawkins, 8th Grader from Great Hearts Online
• Brooklynn Sanders, 4th Grader from Great Hearts Roosevelt (Lower School)
• Elysse Swartz, 4th Grader from Archway Scottsdale
• Charlotte Grys, 8th Grader from Scottsdale Prep
• Myra Ghanta, 3rd Grader from Archway Trivium
• Winston Marvin, 4th Grader from Archway Veritas

Zara Shaik from Archway Chandler was first runner-up after several impressive rounds with Bhardwaj.

Bhardwaj won with the word, troika, meaning “a group of three.” She admitted that it was a new word to her, but she said she was confident in the spelling once she learned that the language of origin was Russian.

There was some tension in the air as the nervous spellers each stepped up to the microphone to spell their word for the three judges: Chief Academic Officer Jake Tawney serving as Pronouncer, Cristian Castro from Maryvale Prep serving as Recorder, and Director of Curriculum Cammie Passey serving as Accuracy Judge. The quiet theater hall was filled with parents and supporters, each hanging on every word that was carefully spelled, advancing to more complicated words as the night progressed.

“This is this is one of the highlights of the year for us,” shared Tawney. “The Spelling Bee demonstrates those things that we hold dear at Great Hearts. [It] demonstrates the Beauty and the structure of language.”

Tawney also noted that the Spalding curriculum used at Great Hearts academies gives our scholars an advantage with spelling by teaching them to understand why words are spelled the way they are. “One of the reasons why the Spelling Bee finds a natural home at Great Hearts particularly is because of our phonics program. Because we focus on the structure of language and the sounds of letters and the way they fit together with other sounds. And this is precisely the knowledge that is needed when you’re asked to spell a word, and especially to spell a word out loud.”

Congratulations to Shriya Bhardwaj for earning the title of 2025 Great Hearts Spelling Bee Champion and we will continue to cheer her on as she represents Great Hearts in the next round, the Regional Spelling Bee.

You can watch the 2025 Great Hearts Spelling Bee in its entirety below:

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