Dalton High’s Bae named state finalist in “Doodle for Google” competition

Published 9:46 pm Saturday, May 10, 2008

When you are sitting at your computer “Googling” the answer to your latest question, do you ever wonder how ideas are generated for the Google logo art? The official name of this artwork is Google Doodles and it is created by Google Webmaster Dennis Hwang.

This month, Hwang will get a little help from one K-12 student in the United States who will be named the winner of the company’s “Doodle for Google” competition. The theme for the competition is “What If …?” encouraging students to dream big about the future and translate their dreams into Google Doodles.

In the state finals for this competition is Dalton High School freshman Yea Jee Bae.

“We’re delighted to report that our panel of expert judges has chosen a doodle by your student, Yea Bae, from a pool of thousands of submissions as one of our State Finalists that best demonstrated artistic merit and creativity and most clearly expressed the ‘What if … ?’ theme,” said a member of the Doodle for Google Team in a letter to DHS graphic arts teacher Nancy Hallsworth. “It’s a great achievement, and we applaud you and your student.”

As a state finalist, Bae will receive a Google art kit and a certificate of recognition. In addition, she is in the running for the regional finals which will reduce the finalist pool from 400 to 40 students. The 40 finalists will be named on Monday and the public will have an opportunity to cast their vote for the four national finalists during the week of May 12-18.

“Yea’s artwork is truly insightful and we are all pulling for her to advance to the region finals,” said Hallsworth.

Hallsworth added that this is not the first award Bae has received for her creative endeavors. This past month, Bae won second place in Georgia’s SkillsUSA competition in the advertising design category and a selection of her poetry was published in the local “In Our Words …” student literary magazine this past year.