Doodle 4 Google

“My wish for the world is that everyone would get along and treat one another in a nice and loving way. We could all be friends!” That’s what 5-year-old Miriam Lowery said about her entry, entitled “friendship around the world,” into the Doodle 4 Google contest which selects the best depictions of the word Google for the popular search engine's website.

The original doodler, Dennis Hwang, was an intern for the company in 2000. Hwang said that founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were already in the process of creating holiday logos for the site and they knew that Hwang was studying art so they let him give it a try. Hwang began helping the company celebrate and promote worldwide events through his Google art. Now, as the site's webmaster and member of the doodle team, Hwang continues to create images that can be seen on Google's homepage.

This year’s doodle contest theme was “what I wish for the world,” helping kids to think in a “what if …” context and explore ideas of world peace and global cooperation. The contest hit 10 regions across the United States where 400 state finalists (only six entries allotted for each school) were chosen by an independent panel of judges. From those 400 state finalists, 40 overall regional finalists were selected and their drawings were displayed on the website. From there, anyone could vote for their favorite doodle out of each grade group (K-12). On May 20, the four national finalists were announced at an award ceremony in New York and the following day, one overall winner was chosen. The winner's doodle was displayed on Google's homepage for 24 hours.

The national winner was awarded a trip to the Google New York office, a $15,000 scholarship to a school of his or her choice, a laptop computer, and a T-shirt with the winning drawing. Not everyone walked away empty-handed, however. The school that encouraged the most participation from its students was awarded the District Quality Participation Prize and received $10,000 for the school’s district.

Though the voting has ended and the winners announced, it’s not too late to enact change in our society. If 5- and 6-year-old children can imagine a world without breast cancer, war, poverty, or global warming, than isn’t our job to help that come to fruition?

It starts with you.

The winning image:

My doodle, "A new beginning," expresses my wish that in the current crisis discoveries will be made. That in these discoveries solutions will be found to help the Earth prosper once more. That those solutions will help the world get back on its feet, and create a better place for everyone.

Christin Engelberth
Bernard A. Harris Jr. High School
San Antonio, Texas