North South Foundation is an American non-profit organization founded by Ratnam Chitturi in 1989, to raise money for scholarships to poor children in India. It stages spelling bees in the United States exclusive to Indian-American children. As of 2016, at least a dozen of the previous winners of Scripps National Spelling Bee had first participated in the spelling bees organized by the foundation. The foundation also runs competitions for math, science, vocabulary, geography, public speaking and essay writing. As of 2016, five previous winners of the National Geographic Bee had first participated in competitions organised by the foundation.[1]
The spelling bee has two divisions, junior and senior. Both divisions have the same rules. The senior spelling bee has harder words. In the regional stages, there is a written round (25 questions for each contestant) and an oral round (6 questions for each contestant). The contestants in the oral round will have 30 seconds to spell their word. In the finals there is a written round (30 words per contestant), an oral round (3 words per contestant), and a final elimination phase based on scores from the first two rounds, which is similar to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The winner is the last one standing.[2]
There are 2 divisions of vocabulary bee. There are 2 phases to the vocabulary bee at the regional level. Phase 1 is a written test consisting of 25 words, while phase 2 is an oral round where each contestant gets 8 questions. Contestants have to select the correct meaning of the word out of the multiple choices provided. At the national level there are three phases. Phase 1 is a written contest with 30 questions to be completed in 20 minutes and Phase 2 is an oral round with 3 questions for each contestant. Contestant gets 30 seconds to answer a question. Phase 3 is an oral elimination round.[4][1]
There are two divisions of the geography bee. There is a written phase with 25 questions for which contestants get 30 minutes and an oral phase where contestants get 5 questions. At Nationals, there are 30 questions written and 3 oral questions. The top 10 cumulative scores are added to the Final Round. The Geography Bee at North South Foundation is alleged by some contestants to be substantially harder[citation needed] than the National Geographic Bee, and many Indian-American winners of the National Geographic Bee have been a successful contestant of the North South Foundation Geography Bee.
In Essay Bee, there is a level 1, a level 2, and a level 3. In finals and regionals contestants get 10 minutes after the topic is announced to plan it. They then get 60 minutes to write the essay. Judges score them and then average the scores and announce the winners.
The Brain Bee is aimed at motivating students to learn about neuroscience, and there are two divisions. Students are quizzed on the brain and its variety of functions. It is open to middle and high schoolers. The 2020 winner for the Intermediate Brain Bee was Riyaa Sri Ramanathan, the 2021 winner for the Senior Brain Bee was Veda Dayananda.
The winners of the above contests, and people who make a certain cutoff score in the regionals will go to the finals, conducted on a University campus throughout America. The 2020 National Finals were scheduled to take place in August at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, but were cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. The 2021 National Finals took place online with each contest being overseen by a different region.[6] Past Locations Cambridge, Massachusetts - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2019, 2008) College Park, Maryland - University of Maryland, College Park (2018, 2009) Houston, Texas - University of Houston (2017) Tampa, Florida - University of South Florida (2016) Columbus, Ohio - Ohio State University (2015, 2007) Richardson, Texas - University of Texas at Dallas (2014) Durham, North Carolina - Duke University (2013) Ann Arbor, Michigan - University of Michigan (2012) San Jose, California - San Jose State University (2011) Glassboro, New Jersey - Rowan University (2010) Evanston, Illinois - Northwestern University (2005, 2006) Tempe, Arizona - Arizona State University (2004)