Geography whiz next dives into spelling

WASHINGTON — Ahilan Eraniyan, 14, of Bentonville has mastered the world atlas as well as the English dictionary.

This week, he was Arkansas’ representative in the National Geographic GeoBee in Washington, D.C. Next week, he will participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Md., just south of the country’s capital.

Ahilan, an eighth-grader at Haas Hall Academy, was one of 54 contestants from across the nation vying for the GeoBee title and a $25,000 scholarship.

In the preliminary rounds Monday, Ahilan answered his first nine questions correctly.

Among other things, he knew that the island of Cyprus is farther from the equator than the island of Madagascar; that the Dnieper River flows past Smolensk (Russia), Orsha (Belarus) and Kiev (Ukraine); and that sloth bears live in Nepal.

He correctly noted that the Zongo glacier, north of Lake Poopo, is in Bolivia and that Georgian Bay is in Ontario, Canada.

During the preliminary competition, he gave only one incorrect answer. Asked a question about Gauteng province, Ahilan replied, “South Africa” — accurately noting the nation where the province is. The correct answer, however, was “Johannesburg,” Gauteng’s capital and South Africa’s largest city.

When it comes to geography bees, Ahilan is no novice.

California’s GeoBee champion in 2017, he was a national GeoBee finalist two years ago. This time, he narrowly missed advancing to the GeoBee championship rounds.

While acing the oral portion of the contest — where the answers are either right or wrong — he fared less well on the written portion, which focuses on “accuracy, reasoning and storytelling” abilities.

Ahilan’s family moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2018. Since arriving, he’s con

quered a variety of local and state competitions.

“I am very proud of him,” said his father, software engineer Eraniyan Guna. “Whatever he has achieved is not easy and it involves a lot of hard work.”

In addition to being Arkansas’ top speller, Ahilan also won

a recent Congressional App Challenge, which is described as the “most prestigious prize in student computer science.”

Ahilan’s entry, the top in all of Northwest Arkansas, was an app called Insectionary, which enables farmers to easily determine whether an insect is harmful or helpful.

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., who presented Ahilan with the award in November, said the winning app is “an

outstanding example of using technology to solve problems our community and nation face.”

Rod Wittenberg, headmaster at Haas Hall Academy, said Ahilan has tremendous abilities.

“He is a scholar that achieves at a very high level. Academics are extremely important to him,” Wittenberg said, adding, “The sky’s the limit for Ahilan.”