Who won the Geography Bee 2018?

Remember Venkat Ranjan? He Conquered the 2018 Geography Bee!

Back in 2018, the National Geographic Bee celebrated its 30th year, and what a year it was! An eighth-grader named Venkat Ranjan, hailing all the way from California, absolutely crushed the competition and walked away with the title. The final showdown took place at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., a pretty impressive venue for such a high-stakes academic battle.

Now, getting to that national stage is no walk in the park. Seriously, think about it: around 2.6 million students across the US throw their hats in the ring each year. It’s open to fourth through eighth graders, so you’ve got some seriously bright young minds battling it out. First, you’ve got to win at your school, then you move on to the state level. Imagine the pressure! The 54 state champs then face even more challenges in the national preliminary rounds—oral rounds, a written exam, the works. Only the top ten make it to the finals. Talk about intense!

Venkat, clearly, was up to the challenge. He showed off some serious geography chops to get there. In the final round, he went head-to-head with Anoushka Buddhikot from New Jersey. The question that sealed the deal? “Lebanon has a population most similar to which South American country?”. Bang! Paraguay was the answer, and Venkat was the champion. Anoushka took a well-deserved second place, and Vishal Sareddy from Georgia came in third.

What did Venkat get for all that brainpower? A cool $50,000 college scholarship, for starters! Not a bad day at the office, right? Plus, the top 10 finalists all snagged college scholarships totaling $85,000. Pretty awesome incentive to study those maps!

The National Geographic Bee—or Nat Geo Bee, as some called it—was a yearly thing from 1989 to 2019. It wasn’t just about memorizing capitals; it was about sparking curiosity about the world, everything from different cultures to crazy land formations, history, and even earth science. It’s a shame they don’t run it anymore; it really got kids excited about geography!