Google Canada Unveils National Winner of Doodle4Google

By Sonya Davidson

Google Canada recently hosted the first-ever national competition designed to inspire students to get creative with the GOOGLE logo using the theme  “If I could invent anything, I would invent…”

Google Canada received thousands of submissions by students across the country  ranging from kindergarten to grade 12. Nearly 200,000 public votes helped determine the regional finalists. The top finalists, and their families, were flown to Toronto for the announcement of the winning design at the Royal Ontario Museum.

“The ideas and the quality of artwork is really amazing. If you look at the entries from the finalists you can see just how creative the kids are,” said Chris O’Neill. “We’ll have a different theme every year but we want to keep it expansive to inspire creativity and curiousity.”

Today, Premier Kathleen Wynn, along with Chris O’Neill, Managing Director of Google Canada, presented Ontario’s Cindy Tang, age 17, the National Prize for her illustration of an underwater sea telescope.

“I didn’t really know that I was going to do this at first,” said Tang, “but I was really inspired by the sea and the creatures there. There is so much that has not been discovered in our oceans so I thought it would be great to invent a telescope to let everyone see what’s there.” 

On February 26, Cindy’s winning doodle will be featured on the Google Canada homepage. Cindy will also receive a $10,000 education scholarship, a HP Chromebook computer and a $10,000 grant for her school.

Is she loving this “rock star” moment? “I’m a little nervous. I know my face is going to be everywhere,” said Tang.

And what’s next for her? “I enjoy art as more of hobby but after winning this competition, I’m now thinking I may look into more creative options for the future,” said Tang.

Congratulations to Cindy and all the finalists! We’ll be looking out for your winning doodle on the Google.ca homepage!

Cindy’s winning doodle, along with 72 other competition finalists will be on display at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto) until April 27, 2014.