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7-Year-Old Sarah Gomez-Lane Awarded $30,000 for Drawing Google Doodle

7-Year-Old Sarah Gomez-Lane Awarded $30,000 for Drawing Google Doodle
  • PublishedJune 21, 2018

Life can sometimes be like a fairy tale. Some bad experiences usually turn out to birth unexpected favorable situations as in the case of little Sarah Gomez-Lane who found inspiration by taking part in a contest sponsored by multinational tech giant Google when lights went out in Falls Church, Va., during a snowstorm.

The impromptu drawing a few months ago culminateded into Sarah Gomez-Lane’s moment in the national spotlight as she’s been named a finalist for the Doodle 4 Google student competition.

Lane-Gomez’s mother, Maria Lane-Gomez, says that not having electronic gadgets around that day played a role in her daughter’s imagination. Their home had lost electricity during the so-called “Monster Nor’Easter” in early March. Dubbed a “bomb cyclone,” the snowstorm struck Washington DC and northern Virginia, and Lane-Gomez and thousands of other children had a snow day off school. In search of something for her daughter to do, Maria scanned her phone (which was still working) and stumbled upon the Google student art contest.

Armed with colored pencils and a sheet of paper, Sarah created a prehistoric-themed masterpiece — a doodle that would eventually become the winner of D4G’s 10th annual contest and yield a whopping financial reward for Sarah..

Responding to this year’s theme, “What Inspires Me,” Lane-Gomez’s mind immediately went to her favorite creatures. “The things on my Doodle are my favorite dinosaurs,” she wrote in the submission. “Dinosaurs inspire me to study more to be a paleontologist. The shovel is for my future job!”

Among the hundreds of thousands of contest entries, Gomez-Lane’s doodle gleamed a little bit brighter to Google’s esteemed panel of judges, which included actor Neil Patrick Harris; Olympic gold medalists Ibtihaj Muhammad and Laurie Hernandez; and 2017 National Teacher of the Year, Sydney Chaffee. From there, her entry advanced to public voting, reached the national finalist level and was ultimately chosen as the final winner by Google executives, which allowed her to reap thousands of dollars to pay for her college education.

Google was thrilled with the results, and quite impressed by Gomez-Lane’s inspiration and ambition: “We fell in love with Sarah’s rendering of her dinos, and were blown away by her big (you might even say “dino-sized”!) ambitions for her future, especially at her young age.”

To honor the contest’s final winner, Google awarded Gomez-Lane $30,000 to use toward a college scholarship, and her Falls Church, Va., school also benefited, receiving a $50,000 award to spend on technology. Google hopes that the tools purchased with the technology award will inspire other students like Gomez-Lane to pursue their dreams.

But the accolades don’t stop there. Gomez-Lane will be the first-ever participant in a new Doodle 4 Google contest experience that will transform her doodle into something extraordinary, according to Google. Gomez-Lane will partner with the Doodle team in a behind-the-scenes experience to make her Doodle interactive. Once the artwork is brought to life by the artist and team Google, it will eventually be featured on Google’s homepage.

Written By
Africh Royale

1 Comment

  • Don’t wear seat belts lest you drown in you own urine?

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