Layla Karpuz, a senior infants student from Dublin, has been named Ireland’s top doodler by Google, winning its third Irish Doodle 4 Google competition.
Six-year-old Layla was selected as the overall winner by Google web designer and senior doodle Mike Dutton.
The Mary Mother of Hope national school student won the competition with her entry “Love Google”. Her doodle will now appear on the Google Irish homepage on Wednesday. Layla’s school will receive a €10,000 technology grant, while her and her teacher will be rewarded with a personal laptop each.
Dutton, who travelled from California specifically for the event, said he loved the colourful doodle and “fantastic description”.
“This is the first time I’ve been involved with the Irish Doodle 4 Google competition and I am overwhelmed by the creativity shown by all those who entered the competition. The Irish are known worldwide for their creativity and artistic flair and if this year’s entries are anything to go by, the younger generations have it in bucketfuls, too!” he added.
Entrants in this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition were asked to design a doodle of the Google logo on the theme ‘To me, happiness is …’
Describing her doodle, Layla said, “My picture is about the things that make me feel happy. In my picture you can see love hearts, curls, shamrocks, people with fancy hats, people going on a bear hunt, grass men (men disguised as grass), plants, shamrock plants for Ireland, grannies and a caterpillar because I like searching for caterpillars. I used different colours in my picture because it looks nice. I like my picture!”
Head of Google Ireland, John Herlihy, said the competition was one of his favourite events of the year.
“Each year it goes from strength to strength and has been growing steadily in popularity,” he said, adding, “We are also pleased to support the winning school with a €10,000 technology grant. It is so important for Ireland’s knowledge economy that children have access to technology from an early age.”
Layla’s doodle was among 60 regional finalists and more than 63,000 public votes were cast before it was narrowed down to the final four doodles.
The three other national finalists in the Doodle 4 Google competition are: Group 2 Ella O’Hagan, 6th Class, Scoil Iosagain Co Donegal; Group 3 Vicky Enright, 3rd Year, Salesian Secondary, Limerick and Group 4 Niamh Byrne, 5th Year, Presentation Secondary School, Tipperary. These students all received a laptop each and a laptop for their teacher.
You can view all the 60 regional finalists’ doodles online.
Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com
