Aspen Graves of Chadron is one of 55 state and territorial winners of Google’s 15th annual Doodle for Google competition, which opened the online voting for its 5 national semifinalists on Thursday.
The 55 names weren’t released until then, but Google allowed Aspen’s selection to be announced last week at Chadron High’s honors knight program.
The competition for K-12 students uses the public online vote to will pick a finalist in each of 5 age groups, one of whom will have their Doodle of the Google logo featured on the internet giant’s homepage for a day.
Thousands of entries were submitted, all inspired by the prompt “I am grateful for…”. Graves, who graduated from Chadron High on Saturday, titled hers “I am grateful for Tranquility.”
She explained in her submission “I am grateful for the feeling of a crisp breeze dancing in the air, fluttering cottonwood leaves, and the fresh scent of a rippling stream as I indulge in a novel.
When gazing upon the luminous water, I envision my grandfather’s hands carving cottonwood logs to shape a spinning wheel. His spinning wheel exists in tandem with the tranquil world – an ecosystem cycling around me.”
Voting in the Doodle for Google competition runs through next Thursday and can be made at doodles.google.com/d4g. The 5 National Finalists will be announced by the end of the month.
The overall national winner will take home a $30,000 college scholarship while their school will receive a $50,000 tech package toward establishment or improvement of a computer lab or technology program.
Awesome!!!! More than AWESOME, Great work Aspen Graves.
Go, Aspen!!! You make so many people proud.