Second grader wins $30,000 college scholarship for dino Google Doodle
Google has chosen the winner of its annual Doodle for Google contest — and a second grader from Virginia stood out above the rest. Sarah Gomez-Lane's dinosaur doodle won her a $30,000 college scholarship.
Gomez-Lane drew a line of dinosaurs whose body shapes resemble the letters spelling out "Google." She and other finalists visited Google for the day and got to meet with the company's designers. It was there that Google revealed Gomez-Lane won the contest.
"When they called my name I felt happy and surprised," she said. "I'm going to call my principal and he's going to say, 'Yay!'"
The theme of this year's doodle competition was "What inspires me...". Gomez-Lane told Google that dinosaurs inspire her because that's what she wants to do when she grows up — become a paleontologist.
After it was announced that Gomez-Lane was the winner, the company's "Doodle team" worked with her to transform her drawing into an animated, interactive Google Doodle.
"I just hope when people see the doodle they are also inspired to think about not only what they dreamed of and wished of when they were kids, but to also take a second to enjoy the simple things in life," Perla Campos, Global Marketing Lead of the Google Doodle Team, said in a video the company released to introduce Gomez-Lane as the winner.
The guest judges who helped choose the scholarship recipient were Jimmy Fallon, Kermit the Frog, and 2018 National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning.
She's only in second grade, but Gomez-Lane now has $30,000 going to her future college fund, bringing her one step closer to becoming a paleontologist. Her school will receive $50,000 "to spend on technology to help students like Sarah continue to pursue what inspires them," Google said in a statement.
