Vanya Shivashankar, an eighth grader from
Olathe, Kansas, was last month crowned the
winner of the Lifetime series “Child Genius,” outlasting
19 other super-intelligent children from
around the country. The 13-year-old won a trophy,
$100,000 for her college education, and the right
to challenge her older sister, Kavya, for the title of
“Smartest Shivashankar Sister.”
Kavya, a neuroscience and pre-med student
at Columbia University, won the 2009 National
Spelling Bee (and $40,000 in
cash and prizes) when she
was 13. Vanya recently qualified
for the National Spelling Bee for the fourth
straight year. It’s her last shot at matching her sister’s
spelling achievement.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I normally
do each year—study, have fun and see how far I
go,” she told the Kansas City Star. “There’s no point
in stressing. I want to stay calm.”