Dougherty Valley High student wins state Doodle 4 Google competition

Dougherty Valley High School student-artist Elaine Park has won Doodle 4 Google’s California state competition for students grade 10-12, besting over 200,000 other entries.

Park will move onto the national competition and go up against against 52 student artists from every other state in addition to Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam. Voting is open now and will close May 18.

This year’s theme was “what inspires me,” which she won by submitting artwork titled “My Close-Knit Family.” Her work depicts her family, including her dog, knitting the Google logo together in a brightly colored pattern.

“My close-knit family embraces each other’s creativity in everything we do. Every morning, every afternoon, every night, we come together to share our lives and connect with our single thread of love. Just like the coziness of the blankets we knit, my family brings each other the warmth and love that supports all creativity, and that is my inspiration,” Park’s submitted caption for the artwork read.

Google employees, in addition to seven guest and celebrity judges, picked Park’s drawing out of hundreds of thousands of submissions to represent California in the final round.

If Park wins the national competition, her artwork will be featured on Google’s homepage, she will be awarded a $30,000 college scholarship and a trip to the Google Campus, and Dougherty Valley will receive a $50,000 technology grant from Google.

If selected in the top five, she will receive a $5,000 college scholarship, a trip to Google headquarters and “fun Googley swag,” according to the Doodle 4 Google online rule book.

Voters will choose the five national finalists in each grade range and Google executives will decide the overall champion.