Schools

Plymouth Student Is Google Doodle Finalist

A Gleason Lake Elementary School fifth-grader is one of 50 finalists in a national art contest.

Who knew a few drawings and some Aztec inspiration could win you a trip to New York City?

That's exactly what it did for  fifth-grader Anna Osipov, who was selected as one of Google's 50 finalists for this year's Doodle 4 Google Art Contest. 

“Doodle 4 Google is a contest I promote each year with my fifth-grade students, and I am thrilled that Anna was chosen as Minnesota's representative,” said Dan Roth, teacher at Gleason Lake.

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Anna of Plymouth was inspired by a discussion in her class about Mayan Aztec culture. This inspiration led to her own Google logo design, which was revealed to students, staff and others at a presentation May 2 at the school.

Before the reveal, Google representatives talked to students about the online company and the contest.

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According to Google's press site: "Doodle 4 Google is a competition where K-12 students are invited to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo for millions to see. At Google, we believe that dreaming about future possibilities leads to tomorrow’s leaders and inventors, so this year we invited U.S. kids to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme."

The theme was "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..."

For Anna, it was the time of the Mayans. Her logo design includes several important aspects of the Aztec culture.

"The 'G' is a horse because Europeans came to Mexico with horses, the first 'O' is the Aztec design, the second 'O' is what their temple looked like," Anna said. "The second 'G' is a puppet of what kids used to entertain themselves, the 'L' is a weapon used to sacrifice people and the 'E' is a mask used during parades to honor their ruler Montezuma."

Anna enjoys homework and fun projects like this, she said. Anna likes drawing houses and is fascinated by structures and architecture.

Anna's family was on hand for her proud moment as she was interviewed by press, congratulated by her peers and praised by her teachers.

"I found out about being a finalist a couple weeks ago," Anna said. "My parents had me listen to the phone message. I jumped up and down. I never thought this would happen."

Anna hasn't been to NYC before. She and her family will be flown out to be at an awards ceremony May 17 where the national winner is announced. The winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and the winner’s school will receive a $50,000 technology grant.

But already as a finalist Anna's design will be up in the New York Public Library.

In order to be named the winner, Anna must get the most votes on her design. Voting is going on May 2-10 at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/.

The winning design will be on the Google homepage May 18.


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