Chosen from among about 4,200 entries, a Connecticut teenager's doodle went up on Google Friday afternoon.
Sarah Harrison, of Stratford, won the national Doodle 4 Google contest with her illustrated vision of acceptance and respect.
Inspired by the prompt, "What I see for the future ..." Sarah, 15, drew kids of various skin hues lined up with arms over each others' shoulders. Six of the eight wear T-shirts that together spell "Google," with religious and other symbols promoting equality and tolerance substituted for letters. The drawing also includes a child in a wheelchair and another holding a cane.
"My future is a world where we can all learn to love each other despite our religion, gender, race, ethnicity, or sexuality," Sarah said. "I dream of a future where everyone is safe and accepted wherever they go, whoever they are."
Ultimately, Sarah's doodle captured the best of everything we saw, representing values like diversity, inclusion and respect in an inspiring and creative image," Google's head of external affairs, William Floyd, said.
The Bunnell High School sophomore had traveled to California with her family as a finalist. On Friday, she received a $30,000 college scholarship, and her doodle was to be showcased on the homepage through Saturday at 3 a.m. Sarah also will have the chance to work with the Doodle team at the Googleplex in Mountain View.
Google regularly updates the logo on the company home page to mark holidays, anniversaries and other notable events. A team of illustrators has created about 2,000 Google doodles since 1998, according to the company.
Sarah said her inspiration was the many divisions among people around the globe.
"When I started, I was thinking of how there's a lot of animosity toward diverse communities of people in the world right now," she said. "So I wanted to draw something that I hoped would show that we can all get along well, and that it's possible for us to be happy with each other."
The celebration was on at Bunnell High School, which is to receive a $50,000 Google for Education grant to advance STEM education.
"The email is blowing up; the phone is blowing up," school Principal Nancy Dowling said.
Dowling said she and some staff members celebrated after seeing Sarah's win announced at 1 p.m., but she could not tell students until 1:30 p.m. because testing was in progress.
"This could not happen to a nicer young woman/artist and her family," she said.
The Doodle 4 Google competition gives K-12 students across the country the opportunity to have their artwork featured on the Google homepage. This year, a panel of judges, including Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, selected the winners from the 50 states and three territories. Public voting over the course of two weeks then determined national finalists.
Google was the most visited website in the world in 2016, according to web traffic data and analytic company Alexa Internet Inc.
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