The 2015 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee began its 12-city tour this past weekend with the first two events in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. MetLife, a leading global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management, is serving as the event’s title sponsor for the seventh consecutive year.
(www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com)

With a huge turnout this year as well, the Bee attracted some top talent as well as young and new spellers that competed for the coveted prizes and titles.

“We are seeing the advent of this craft as a brain sport within the community and it’s great to see the parents encouraging the spellers to follow their passion and dream. If done right, spellers can actually accumulate their college tuition before they turn 14,” said Rahul Walia, Founder - South Asian Spelling Bee.

In the LA regional, Aryan Varma from Overland Park, KS was the regional champ for the second consecutive year and Yash Hande from San Diego, CA, was the first runner up, followed his sister’s footsteps to become a legacy finalist while new comer Kiran Depal of Temecula, CA was second runner up.

In Bay Area, eight-year-old Shreyas Rathi of Cupertino, CA, in his first ever showing spelt “Cilia” to become the youngest regional champ this season so far, and Shreya Girish of Santa Clara, CA was first runner up while Anisha Rao of Dublin, CA, was second runner up.  San Francisco Bay Area’s leading daily The San Jose Mercury News covered the event and ran a front-page story on the domination of South Asian spellers at Spelling Bees.

"MetLife is pleased to serve once again as the title sponsor of the South Asian Spelling Bee competition,” said Laurel Daring, assistant vice president, Communications, MetLife Premier Client Group. “This event allows youth from across the country to test their spelling skills in a national forum and helps them gain a better understanding of how much they can achieve through hard work and dedication. For MetLife, it also underscores our commitment to serving and giving back to the South Asian community.”  

Along with MetLife, food brand Kawan is the Powered by sponsor for this event. As always, SONY Entertainment Television Asia is the exclusive broadcast partner for the MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee and will be airing the series across 120 countries.

“Kawan is proud to support this platform that helps in the overall growth of the child. We look forward to seeing this year’s talent and are happy to be part of the process to find the best speller from the South Asian community," said Tim Tan, Director - International Business, Kawan Food, makers of the world’s most popular Roti Paratha Brand in the world - Kawan Paratha.

The winners received cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 respectively.

Children up to 14 years of age are eligible to participate and the contest saw spellers of even 6 years of age compete and make it past a few rounds. There are 10 more cities on the anvil and for more information and to register your child, please visit www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com.

The top two winners plus one parent each from every city will be given an all expenses paid trip to NJ on August 14 for the FINALS.

SONY Entertainment Television Asia is the exclusive broadcast partner for the MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee and will be airing the series across 120 countries.

Find us on Facebook at South Asian Spelling Bee and you can follow us on our Twitter handle at Spell South Asian.

To reserve your FREE passes to the Finals, please log on to www.SouthAsianSpellingBee.com and fill in your details.

About Touchdown Media Inc.:

Touchdown Media Inc. is a specialized South Asian advertising and promotions firm based in New Jersey. Now in its 11th successful year, Touchdown has helped clients- both mainstream and otherwise, reach out to the lucrative South Asian market, Touchdown Media represents more than 35 years of collective experience in this niche market. As a full service ad firm, Touchdown has helped many clients achieve their media and marketing goals within the South Asian Diaspora in the US.

About MetLife:

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates (“MetLife”), is one of the largest life insurance companies in the world. Founded in 1868, MetLife is a global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. Serving approximately 100 million customers, MetLife has operations in nearly 50 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

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