In addition to the huge college scholarship, Rishi won a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses-paid trip for himself and a parent on an expedition to southeast Alaska aboard a National Geographic ship.
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The final question was “A new marine sanctuary will protect sharks and other wildlife around Isla Wolf in which archipelago in the Pacific Ocean?”
This is the fifth consecutive year that an Indian-American has won the prestigious national tournament.
Eighth-grader Saketh Jonnalagadda, 14, from MA was the runner-up and recipient of the Dollars 25,000 college scholarship.
Nair is just the second Florida-based student to win the National Geography Bee.
The Stony Brook School eighth-grader was one of 10 students to make it to the final round of the bee, held in the nation’s capital. The answer was: “Galapagos Islands”.
Ashwin Sivakumar, a student at Oregon Episcopal School, represented Oregon past year in the competition as well. (Lake Kive, duh) – he was named the victor of the competition on Wednesday.
Fifty-four state and territory winners took part in the preliminary rounds of the 2016 National Geographic Bee on Monday, May 23.
Asked whom does he have to thank, Nair told The American Bazaar: “Myself obviously, and my mom”.
“My first-grade teacher, Ms. Denise Williams, gave me a book about the Dominican Republic, and I read that and many other country books so my mom started to put me in other geographic competitions”, Nair said. “She’s a really great lady”.
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The bee is taped for broadcast on National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD.
