Audrey Zhang, a fifth grader who attends Island Trees Memorial Middle School in Levittown, is the New York State winner of the 7th Annual Doodle 4 Google competition.
The tech company asked K-12 students across the U.S. to design a new Google (GOOGL) logo using the theme “If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place…” A panel of Google employees narrowed the submissions down to 250 finalists, and then picked their favorite doodle from each state. According to CBS New York, Ms. Zhang’s piece, “Back to Mother Nature,” was selected from more than 100,000 submissions.
Her invention? A “transformative
Google is having the public vote for five National Finalists through May 9th. The finalists will be announced in a ceremony at Google’s California headquarters on May 21st. All the State Finalists have already won an Android tablet, a shirt with their doodle printed on it and a trip the awards ceremony. The five National Finalists will also win a $5,000 scholarship for a school of their choice.
But the winner gets the ultimate prize: his or her doodle featured on the Google homepage for a full day. Oh yeah, and a $30,000 scholarship, a Chromebook computer and $50,000 for their school’s technology program. And all you won in middle school was a Little League participation trophy.
The funding of our schools has been a hotter-than-usual-button issue for months now, but a $50,000 grant is something we can all get behind. So rep your state, New Yorkers.
