BETTENDORF, Iowa (KWQC) – A national spotlight is once again shining on the QCA and this time, its all thanks to a local second grader. A talented student in Bettendorf could soon have art on the Google homepage for hundreds of millions to see. Google is announced the 53 state and territory winners in its eighth annual Doodle 4 Google competition, a contest open to K-12 students across the United States to redesign the Google logo inspired by the theme “What makes me…me.”
Shalini Chandupatla, a second grader from Hopewell Elementary in Bettendorf, is one of the 53 winners with her doodle, “Being myself is so fun,” depicting her love of art, music, family and helping others. Shalini’s doodle was selected from around 100,000 received this year. This was the first year that the use of non-traditional media was strongly encouraged, and about a quarter of submissions used materials like clay, paper mache, leaves and picnic tables!
To help their favorites succeed, everyone across the USA can vote for their favorite doodle from the 53 state winners. Voting will be open from February 5 to February 22 at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html, and the public vote will determine the five national finalists (one in each grade group).
Google will announce these five national finalists, and one of them as the national winner, on March 21 — and the winner’s doodle will go live on Google.com that day.
The national winner and national finalists will travel to Mountain View, California, to meet and workshop with Google’s team of professional doodlers and see what it takes to launch a Doodle on the Google homepage. This year, the nation winner can also nominate a teacher who has inspired him or her to come along on the trip. The national winner also will take home a $30,000 college scholarship and his or her school will receive a $50,000 Google for Education grant toward the establishment and improvement of a computer lab or technology program.
