Hello, I am Akshita Balaji. I’m 14, and a freshman at Westfield High School. I’ve always had a passion for spelling since I was a kid, and I’ve been competing in bees for as long as I can remember. I won my class spelling bee for the very first time in third grade, and proceeded to win my county spelling bee in 6th grade. After that, I was inclined to win my county spelling bee again in 7th grade, but unfortunately, it was canceled due to Covid-19. During that year, I competed in a multitude of online spelling bees and placed in the top 10 for the majority of them.
In 8th grade, I made it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the second time. I made it to the Semifinals of the competition, and placed 21st. I also competed in online spelling bees such as NSF Finals 2021 (Placed 2nd), SpellPundit Online National Spelling Bee (Placed 3rd). After loosing eligibility to compete in any more Spelling Bees, I took upon coaching spellers and have been enjoying working with fellow spellers achieve their dream.
