2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Faizan Zaki revealed his plans to pay forward his prize money.
Zaki, 13, secured victory on Thursday, May 29, by spelling “eclaircissement” in the final round of the competition after he was the runner-up at last year’s Spelling Bee.
“Me and my family, we’re not the richest but we’re not the poorest,” Zaki told The Associated Press after his win. “So I want to give back to the people who might not be as fortunate as me.”
Zaki received a $50,000 cash prize from the Scripps National Spelling Bee and $2,500 from Merriam-Webster, in addition to $400 of reference works from Encyclopedia Britannica and $1,000 Scholastic Dollars to be donated to the school of the school of his choice.
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Zaki, who was competing in his 4th Scripps National Spelling Bee, is a 7th grade student at C.M. Rice Middle School in Plano, Texas.
According to his Spelling Bee profile, Zaki “is usually playing video games, chatting with his friends, speedcubing or playing his viola. He is an avid language learner and linguistics nerd who is currently learning French.”
Zaki’s victory didn’t come without some major drama. With the competition down to three spellers, Zaki’s two opponents misspelled their words, leaving him two words away from the title.
“Commelina,” Zaki was asked to spell.
Rather than ask any of the permitted questions about the word — language of origin, definition, etc. — Zaki immediately started spelling.
“K-A-M,” he started. “OK, let me do this,” Zaki stammered, clearly flustered. “Oh, shoot!”
Realizing his error, Zaki told head judge Mary Books, “Just ring the bell.”
The other two spellers returned to the stage before Zaki recovered and won.
“Commelina, oh my god,” Zaki told the AP. “I’m definitely going to be having nightmares about that tonight.”
Last year’s champion Bruhat Soha, who beat Zaki in a spell-off, joked that Zaki “cared too much about his aura” to ask questions about “commelina.”
Whatever the case, Zaki’s father, Zaki Anwar, gushed about his son’s stirring accomplishment.
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“He’s the GOAT,” Anwar told the AP. “I actually believe that. He’s really good, man. He’s been doing it for so long, and he knows the dictionary in and out.”
During a Friday, May 30, appearance on Good Morning America, the champion said his winning moment was “all a blur.”
“I was just so excited and, like, after I spoke my word, at the end, when I spoke my word, I was kind of losing breath,” Zaki said, adding that he had only gotten two hours of sleep.
He continued, “Those last couple of letters, I was gasping for air. I was hyperventilating with excitement.”
