When they were asked the targeted destination of their spelling booty (reportedly more than $37,000 each), the National Spelling Bee champs both had the same answer.
Two words: College fund.
14-year-old Gokul Venkatacham of Chesterfield, Missouri, and 13-year-old Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, know the point of it all.
College is the next stop. There is no Pro-Spellers League, no Bee League.
But is $37,000 going to even pay for a top-flight school in five years?
Even if the co-champs had the full $37,000 to put into a 529 plan—where the money could grow and the distributions are tax-free if used for college expenses—the champs would still be wanting for cash after freshman year.
Can you spell D-E-B-T?
