NEWS Walnut Valley Unified School District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 880 S. Lemon Avenue
May 2, 2012 Walnut, CA 91789
Contact:
Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204
VOTE 4 HERMAN!
Suzanne 6th grader Sixth Herman Wang Named State Winner in Google Contest
WALNUT, CA—Every vote counts as Suzanne Middle School 6th grader Herman Wang advances to the national level in the 2012 Doodle 4 Google contest.
Herman, age 12, has been named the State Winner in the 6th -7th grade group in the Doodle 4 Google national competition.
Representatives from Google came to celebrate his accomplishment during an assembly on May 2.
Googlers Chris Dong and Paul Wilcox demonstrated several cool “bells and whistles” of the popular web search company as well as the history of the ever-changing artistic Google homepage logo.
The audience of 150 students and staff wearing red, blue, yellow, and green contest t-shirts cheered when the Google Earth feature zoomed to a close-up overhead photo of their school.
Doodle 4 Google is a contest where K-12 grade students in the United States were invited to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo for millions to see.
This year, students were asked to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme, "If I could travel in time, I'd visit…"
Herman said he learned about the contest from his Art Teacher Jonathan St. Amant.
“I looked up some ideas on Google,” he said about choosing a concept for the contest.
The talented young artist has been drawing since the age of 4.
His entry titled “Retro City” was created using both lead and colored pencils, and pen.
Google presented him with a custom t-shirt featuring his doodle logo that he proudly wore during the assembly.
“If I could travel in time, I'd visit Retro City. A future city made of robots and humans,” Herman said.
His entry design featured a series of highly detailed, large architectural space stations hovering around a "teched-out" planet Earth.
A total of 114,000 entries from every corner of the country were judged in three categories - creativity, artistic merit, and how well the contest theme was expressed, Wilcox said.
Google employees chose the 250 State Finalists and then a panel of celebrity judges narrowed the Finalists to 50 State Winners.
The 50 State winners represent the top doodles in this year’s contest. Google will fund Henry’s trip to New York City on May 17 when he will find out if he is one of the five national finalists,
The Grand Prize winner will be announced on May 18 and the winning entry will be featured on the Google homepage for 24 hours.
Now the public chooses the national winner by voting online. You can vote for Herman W, CA in the 6th- -7th grade group at www.doodle4google.com
*Please note, only one vote per computer per age group during the voting period (May 2nd - 10th) is allowed - so be sure to get all your family and friends voting!
The winning artist will receive $30,000 for college, a $50,000 grant for their school for technology, and art to be featured on the Google homepage for millions to enjoy. A special bonus doodle will be featured on Crayola’s iconic 64 box.
“Herman has taken his success and talent with such virtue,” said art teacher Jonathan St. Amant.
“Having him in Art Club is a joy because he is very stealthy in his designs."
He’ll be drawing something brilliant and will describe it with just a couple of words, Amant added.
“Herman speaks through his art,” he said.
Principal Les Ojeda congratulated Herman on producing the outstanding Google art project.
“And now it’s our turn to thank him and the best way to do that is by voting and by spreading the word. The way he’s going to make it to the finals is if we all share with our friends,” he said.
“We all know a lot of people. It you tell somebody, then they’ll tell somebody, and before you know it you've got a lot of people spreading the word!”
St. Amant asked Herman if he had anything to say to the audience about art or design.
“Please vote for me!” the quiet young artist responded.
Shown:
Suzanne Middle School Art Teacher Jonathan St. Amant asked Google contest winner Herman about his entry.
Suzanne's Herman Wang has been named State Winner in the 2012 Doodle 4 Google contest. His entry is titled “Retro City”. Google reps brought a huge poster for the celebration assembly held on May 2 that will now be displayed on the school campus.
Vote 4 Herman! The national winner will be selected by online voting at www.doodle4google.com.
Suzanne Middle School 6th grader Herman Wang is the State Finalist in Google’s 2012 student art contest. Shown with Principal Les Ojeda and Art Teacher Jonathan St. Amant.
Doodle 4 Google State Winner Herman Wang signed autographs on contest t-shirts after the May 2 assembly.
Googlers Chris Dong and Paul Wilcox with Suzanne Assistant Principal Donna Hunter and Principal Les Ojeda celebrate 6th grader Herman Wang who has been named the State Winner in the Doodle 4 Google contest.