Levittown Student's Winning Doodle Appears On Google's Homepage
LEVITTOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- It's a big day for a Long Island girl.
Audrey Zhang, a fifth grader from Island Trees Memorial Middle School in Levittown, drew the winning entry in the 7th Annual "Doodle 4 Google" competition.
Her piece, titled "Back to Mother Nature," is featured on Google's homepage today. It was selected from over 100,000 entries received this year. Zhang was named the state winner in April and was voted the national winner by millions of people across the U.S.
Zhang drew a "transformative water purifier" that converts dirty and polluted water from rivers, lakes and oceans, and turns it into clean and safe drinking water.
Students across the country were asked to redesign the Google logo using the theme, "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place."
"I was thinking that if we didn't have water we couldn't live," Zhang told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera back in April.
The drawing was prominently featured on Google's homepage along with added animation by the Google artistic team, CBS 2's Scott Rapoport reported.
"I got this idea when I learned that 3-million people die of disease from polluted water every year, and many of them are children," she said.
The creation was no surprise to Zhang's mother.
"She's been doing this since before she could speak. When she was 2-years-old she started drawing," Hongmei Weng said.
Zhang will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and her school will get a $50,000 Google for Education grant towards the establishment and improvement of a computer lab or technology program, something that the principal at Island Trees Memorial Middle School definitely appreciates.
"I'm ready to jump up and down," Principal Roger Bloom said.
Google is also giving $20,000 in Zhang's name to a charity to bring clean water and latrines to 10 schools in Bangladesh.
Zhang was also the state winner and a national finalist in the 2013 Doodle 4 Google competition.
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