Shivam Kolwalkar, a student at Ashley River Creative Arts in Charleston County, stood under the bright lights at the North Charleston Athletic Center knowing he might be moments away from victory.

He was competing in Spellbound!, the Lowcountry’s only region spelling bee officially sanctioned by the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The contest had gone down from 26 students to two: Kolwalkar and Jordan Bazzle, a student at Charleston School of the Arts. 

Bazzle had just misspelled her word.

Kolwalkar was given a shot at spelling “polysemy,” which is defined as the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase.

He spelled it correctly and was presented with one final hurdle. He needed to spell “cabaret,” the nightclub entertainment venue.

“C-A-B-A-R-E-T,” he said. 

The judge told him he was correct and the room erupted into applause. Kolwalkar was crowned Spellbound! champion.

[…]

The contest this year represented students from Charleston, Berkeley, Colleton, Dorchester 2 and 4, the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, Christian Home Educators Association and S.C. Independent School Association.

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