FAYETTEVILLE — When it comes to artwork, it seems Google is drawn to Fayetteville’s Hannah Newsom.
The California-based Internet services company best known for its search engine has, for the third time in four years, picked the 11th-grade home-schooled student as a regional finalist in its Doodle 4 Google contest.
“She is definitely the only student to be a regional finalist for three out of the four years we’ve been running the contest,” said Anne Espiritu, manager of global communications and public affairs at Google.
Newsom was named a regional finalist in 2010 and 2008. This year, more than 107,000 entries were submitted in four grade categories.
The prize for the winning artist is having their artwork displayed for a day on the opening page of Google’s search engine. There’s also a $15,000 scholarship, a laptop computer, a digital drawing tablet, a trip to New York for the student artist and parents and the display of their artwork in two prominent museums.
Hannah said she was amazed to become a regional finalist for a third time.
Hannah’s mother Lisa said she was equally amazed.
“This drawing is probably her best work,” Lisa Newsom said of this year’s entry. “She worked really hard on it and she was pretty proud of it.”
Google developed the contest four years ago. This year, contestants were asked to create a “doodle” that incorporates the Google logo and is inspired by the theme “What I’d like to do someday …”
Hannah’s drawing includes a self-portrait: A girl sitting at a drawing table in the foreground — her head completes the first “o” in Google — and she’s surrounded by scenes from fairy tales.
AT A GLANCE
Judging Process
Entries in the Doodle 4 Google contest are first narrowed to 400 state entries by Google employees. Then, a panel of celebrity judges narrowed the entries to 40, one for each grade category from one of 10 national regions.
Hannah Newsom’s region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
After the public vote, the top four vote recipients will be evaluated by Google executives. The winner will be named on May 19.
That student’s art will then be displayed on Google.com May 20.
Source: Staff Report
The company now allows the public to vote on their favorites. Voting can be done at www.google.com/doodle4google. Voting closes Friday.
According to the contest website, Google hosts the contest in more than 21 other countries.