Indian-American Arvind Mahankali wins Spelling Bee 2013

Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old boy from Bayside Hills, New York, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling "knaidel," a kind of dumpling. Mahankali, a student at Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School, had finished third in the contest twice before, each time stumbling on German words. This year, the packed auditorium erupted in a standing ovation when he nailed "knaidel," which comes from German-derived Yiddish. Mahankali, who wants to become a quantum physicist, defeated 10 other finalists.