Brooklyn Student Wins the New York State Doodle 4 Google Competition

A sixth-grader in Brooklyn won the New York State Doodle 4 Google Competition, according to New York Daily News.

Gwendolyn McNamara, a 12-year-old from Bedford-Stuyvesant, was announced the winner of the contest on Tuesday, Feb. 28 in front of her fellow classmates and teachers at Community Roots Middle School in Downtown Brooklyn.

This year’s theme for Doodle 4 Google was “What I see for the future.” Gwen created a doodle called Future Air using colored pencils and watercolors. Her design focuses on clean air. “My doodle represents my hopes that future children will be able to look up and see stars and planets without pollution and smoke blocking out the sky,” Gwen wrote in her Doodle 4 Google entry. “I hope for a world where people care for our planet, so that generation after generation can see the stars.”

Gwen is one of 53 state and territory finalists and her doodle will be included in the Doodle 4 Google gallery. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams congratulated Gwen after the announcement and gave her an Android tablet as well as a T-shirt with her drawing on it. Four national finalists will additionally receive a $5,000 college scholarship, a trip to the Google Headquarters in California, and a Chromebook. The national winner will have their doodle on the U.S. Google homepage for a day, along with a $30,000 college scholarship, a $50,000 Google for Education Technology Award for their school or a nonprofit organization, and the aforementioned Chromebook, Android tablet, and trip to the Google Headquarters in California.