"Creative thinking is a skill we need to nurture," Matt Wood, principal of Pea Ridge Middle School said as he introduced eighth-grade student Mackenzie Campbell and her teacher Anya Bruhin.
Campbell won the Arkansas finalist Doodle4Google contest and has an opportunity to win a $30,000 scholarship from Google. If she wins, the school will also receive a $50,000 grant from Google.
Attending the ceremony Friday were U.S. Congressman Steve Womack, State Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, State Rep. Sue Scott and Mayor Jackie Crabtree.
Bruhin said she has submitted art work by students every year.
"Some of the best people in Arkansas are right here today," Scott said. "I'm so proud of each and every one of you."
"I think this school, the teachers, the superintendent and School Board are wonderful examples," Bledsoe said, adding that Pea Ridge is always on the list of schools in Arkansas that are very progressive.
Campbell's art, titled "Tea with Google," could be on the Google homepage for hundreds of millions to see. The theme of this year's contest, open to K-12 students across the United States, was "What makes me ... me."
Mackenzie's doodle was selected from around 100,000 received this year. This was the first year that the use of non-traditional media was strongly encouraged, and about a quarter of submissions used materials like clay, paper mache, leaves and picnic tables.
To help Campbell win the national spot, vote for her art work online. Voting will be open from Feb. 5-22 on this site: http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html; the public vote will determine the five national finalists (one in each grade group).
Google will announce these five national finalists and one of them as the national winner on March 21 -- and the winner's doodle will go live on Google.com that day.
Community on 02/10/2016