West High School freshman a regional finalist in Doodle 4 Google Competition

IOWA CITY – Doodling in class is frowned upon by most teachers – unless that doodle earns $25,000 for the school.

West High School Jason Uhm is one step closer to winning West that technology grant, and a $15,000 college scholarship for himself, through Google's Doodle 4 Google competition.

Uhm is one of 40 regional finalists in the annual competition. His doodle was selected from more than 107,000 entries nationally.

“This is the third year West has participated in the contest and the first year we've had a finalist,” Maria Martin, West's academic dean, said.

This year's Doodle 4 Google challenges K-12 students to design a Google logo inspired by the theme  “What I'd like to do someday…”

Uhm's entry, “Searching for the Stars,” states he'd like to “help everyone reach the stars because the sky is not the limit, to our world nor our dreams.”

Uhm said the idea for his galaxy-themed doodle came to him in science class.

“We were studying astronomy and the stars, and it seemed to fit the contest,” Uhm, 15, said.

Google doodles have appeared on Google's homepage. The creative changes to the corporate logo celebrate everything from holidays, famous birthdays – event last week's royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton.

The fun tradition started in 1998 when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin placed a stick figure behind the second “o” in the word Google. The revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were “out of office.”

Since then, the doodle team has created more 300 doodles for Google.com in the United States and over 700 have been designed internationally. The ideas for the doodles themselves are gathered from numerous sources, including Google employees and the general public.

Doodle 4 Google was introduced four years ago to tap students' skills.

“It's a chance for students to let their creative side flourish,” said Andy Kreil, a tech service associate with Google who visited West today to present Uhm with a life-size version of his doodle.

“We want everyone to be creative, to think about their futures,” added Jackie Robinson, who works in Google's sales division. “It's all about dreaming big.”

The public help Google select four national finalists – one per grade group – by casting a vote for their favorite now through 7 p.m. May 13 at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html.

Google will choose the national winner from the public's top four picks.

All 40 regional finalists will attend an awards ceremony at Google's New York City office May 19, where the national winner will be announced. Each finalist will also have their doodle displayed in a special exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The winning student's doodle will also be displayed on the Google homepage on May 20.

Comments: (319) 398-8434; meredith.hines-dochterman@sourcemedia.net