TAMPA, Fla. — A local 12-year-old who won the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee is resting after a long day of media interviews around the country and a trip to the White House. 10 Tampa Bay spoke to Bruhat Soma who says it’s been a tremendous amount of hard work.
“It's been pretty exciting to win,” he told 10 Tampa Bay. “It's been what I’ve been working for the whole past year.”
Soma is Tampa Bay's newest celebrity; the middle-schooler at Turner/Bartels K-8 school in New Tampa says he's been feeling the love from the Bay area, now home to back-to-back national spelling bee champs after Dev Shah from Largo won last year.
“I’ve been working 10 hours on weekends and then 6 hours on weekdays, so it's been pretty exciting that I’ve won,” Soma said. “I'm really happy. It's like a dream come true.”
“I've got a lot of messages expressing congratulations, especially from the Tampa area,” he continued. “That just shows that Tampa is pretty cool.”
Friday has been a whirlwind of interviews, and a trip to the White House, where he didn't meet the president but saw other champions — the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
“It was pretty fun and we were on the front lawn, so that was pretty cool too,” Soma said.
The press tour continues for Bruhat with future stops in New York and L.A.
“I'm excited for those,” he said. “It's like I get to travel somewhere else too, which is pretty fun.”
Once he returns home, he'll enjoy lots more free time.
“I've set aside a lot of my other commitments just to work on this one because, for me, this was really important,” he told us.
For all the youngsters with similar aspirations, he spells out what they need to do to win:
“If you want maybe semifinals or finals or champion, just set that goal and then work for it,” he instructs. “Maybe try studying like two or three hours a day on average, you'll be good. If you don't achieve those goals, don't be disappointed. Just work harder the next year."