Last month, a high school sophomore named Alikah Johnson entered the "Doodle 4 Google" contest and never expected that she'd be the winner.
Johnson, who goes to Eastern Senior High Schhol in Northeast Washington, is one out of the 100,000 student Doodle entries. The high school sophomore, as told by Washington Post, feels overwhelmed that she had been named Google's big winner in the national contest.
This year's theme was "What makes me -me-." Her drawing was a box-braided Doodle and titled it "My Afrocentric Life." She used color pencils, Sharpie pens and black crayons as her tools. She focused on her black heritage plus signs of the "Black Lives Matter" movement. When asked to describe her work, she wrote on Google that she was raised in an Afrocentric lifestyle, and in her doodle, she used the six most special symbols to her. Starting with the "...Symbol of Life [the ankh], the African continent, where everything began for me and my ancestors, the Eye of Horus, the word 'power' drawn in black, the woman's fist based on one of my favorite artist's works, and the D.C. flag - because I'm a Washingtonian at heart and I love my city with everything in me!"
Her art teacher, Zalika Perkins, describes Akilah's work as "culturally rich."
"I was so excited, I started crying," Akilah says. "I didn't even look at anybody - I was just looking at the framed copy [of the Doodle] they gave me."
In even more exciting news, aside from her work being highlighted on Google's homepage, the young lady will receive a $30,000 college scholarship. In addition, her high school is awarded a $50,000 Google for Education grant - ""towards the establishment and improvement of a computer lab or technology program."
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