EDISON — With chants of “Cynthia” and a standing ovation, the Edison High School sophomore class gave fellow classmate Cynthia Cheng something to smile about.
Cheng’s artwork, titled “Supplies for the Students,” was chosen as one of 40 regional finalists in Google Inc.’s annual Doodle 4 Google logo competition, which is open to students in grades K-12 throughout the United States. This year, more than 107,000 entries were submitted. Cheng was one of two students in her region of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania who were chosen among the 40 regional finalists.
Voting is open to the general public until 11:59 p.m. May 13. These votes will help determine the four national finalists, one from each of the four grade groups (K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12).
Cheng’s drawing can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/doodle4google2011/finalists….
Google representatives from the company’s New York office traveled to Edison High School on May 4 to celebrate Cheng’s accomplishment.
If Cheng is selected as the national winner from the four national finalists announced on May 19, her doodle will be featured on the U.S. Google.com homepage for one day for all to see. She will be awarded a $15,000 college scholarship to be used at the school of her choice, a trip to Google’s New York office, a laptop computer, a Wacom digital design tablet, and a T-shirt printed with her doodle on it. Also if she wins, Edison High School will receive a $25,000 technology grant toward the establishment or improvement of a computer lab or technology programming.
Each of the other three national finalists will win a $5,000 educational grant to be used at the school of his or her choice, a trip to the Google New York office for the May 19 event, a Wacom design tablet, and a T-shirt with their doodle on it.
“This is definitely a great accomplishment for Cynthia,” said Joelle Tramel, who has been with Google for six years and works in the company’s global agency development team.
Tramel was joined by teammate Kerry Murrill, who has been with Google for close to five years.
The Doodle 4 Google contest began four years ago, they explained. Originally only school officials could nominate students; however, this year Google allowed all students to submit their own entries.
“In 2009, we received 20,000 submissions; in 2010, we received 33,000 submissions; and this year, we received over 107,000 submissions,” Tramel said.
For the contest, Google invited students to exercise their imaginations and artistic talents using the theme, “What I’d like to do someday …”
Cheng said when thinking about ideas for the contest, she considered what issues affect teenagers on a national level.
“I thought about the school budget cuts, and I also thought about teen suicide,” she said. “But then I felt that the teen suicide was just too dark of an idea.”
Sherry Yee, Cheng’s art teacher, said her student does everything on her own.
“Cynthia puts 110 percent into what she does; the only problem is she wants to do everything at the same time,” she said. “I’m only there to help her out and cater to what she needs.”
Once Cheng chose to concentrate on school budget cuts as her theme, she set out to do some sketches. Her drawing depicts school supplies, textbooks, and the after-school late buses that were cut from the district’s budget last year, and more.
In her official description of her “Doodle,” she wrote that “students ought to have all the supplies they need” to get “the best education possible.”
“It took me two nights to finish,” she told her peers, which brought wide eyes and “wows” from the crowd.
Cheng said at first she didn’t want to enter the contest.
“I was just involved in too many contests and really didn’t think I would win,” she said.
Fortunately, she did enter.
“My mom received an email and told me that I was one of the finalists …”
Tramel said many of the top 40 finalists homed in on ideas relating to education as well as on issues concerning the environment.
Google broke down the 107,000-plus submissions to 400 finalists and then ultimately the 40 regional finalists.
The top 40 finalists will be judged by celebrity guest judges: Whoopi Goldberg, an award-winning actress, comedian and TV talk show host; Jim Davis, creator of the “Garfield” comic strip; Evan Lysacek, Olympic gold medalist and world champion in ice skating; Michael Phelps, Olympic gold medalist and world champion in swimming; Nicole Stott, a NASA astronaut; Paul Tibbitt, executive producer of “SpongeBob SquarePants”; Jeff Kinney, author of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”; Tony Cervone, supervising producer of “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated” and “The Looney Tunes Show,” Warner Brothers Animation; Beverly Cleary, author of children’s books; Maira Kalman, author and illustrator of children’s books; Scott McCloud, cartoonist; Kathryn Potts, associate director and Helena Rubinstein chair of education, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; and Carolyn Payson, director of education at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York City.
Each of the 40 regional finalists has won a trip to the Google New York office for an event on May 19 and a T-shirt with their doodle on it. All 40 finalists also will have their doodle displayed in a special exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Cheng, 15, said she is not yet certain about her career plans. Her activities in school range from playing wide receiver on the school’s football team to being involved with the National Arts Society and peer mediation. Last year, she played on the school lacrosse team.
“In elementary school, I wanted to be a farmer,” she said, drawing laughs from the crowd. “Maybe a cartoonist one day, I don’t know.”
Cheng said she is a big comic book reader. She looks up to Japanese comic book artist Tomoyasu Murata.
“That is probably where I get my style,” she said.
For more information visit www.google.com/doodle4google/.