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Tega Cay middle school student is S.C. Google Doodle winner

[caption id="attachment_50538" align="aligncenter" width="684"] Carolyn Zheng's Doodle for Google. Image courtesy of Google.[/caption]

Google announced recently that Carolyn Zheng of Gold Hill Middle School in Tega Cay is one of its 14th annual Doodle for Google contest state and territory winners.

Zheng was entered in the 6-7 Grade group. Her doodle is above. To celebrate their achievements, each of the 54 state and territory-winning students received Google hardware and swag, and Google held celebrations in their hometowns to showcase their artwork.
The Doodles are judged based on artistic merit, creativity, and theme communication. The public can vote for their favorite Doodles at doodle4google.com until July 12. (The Hub regrets the late notice; we only just found out ourselves.-Ed.) Voters can help determine who will go on to become one of our five national finalists. A panel of Google employees will then select one national winner from that group. The winning artist will see their work on the Google homepage for a day, receive a $30,000 college scholarship, and the winner’s school will receive a $50,000 technology grant. In a release, Google said, "We were amazed by the submissions we received. Across ages, students showcased how they cultivate self-care practices in thoughtful and intentional ways. Young artists shared a range of helpful strategies including spending time in nature, being active, taking part in creative hobbies, and spending time with loved ones. Given the challenging nature of the past few years, we were really inspired to see the many ways students have been nurturing their spirits and building resilience." Doodles are meant to surprise and delight people when they visit Google.com. Past Doodles have celebrated some of the most brilliant, talented, and passionate people throughout history.

Jason Rapp

Tuning Up: Google Doodle for S.C. student? + Awards Day gallery

Good morning!  "Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...


  • Moncks Corner 6th-grader Olivia Lumsden is competing in the 2018 Doodle for Google contest. She could become one of five national finalists for the chance to have her art featured on Google.com, win scholarship money and more. To see her doodle, learn more, and vote for her, check out this story from WLTX.com.
  • For those of you who don't follow SCAC on Facebook, late yesterday we shared an image gallery showing selected photos from South Carolina Arts Awards Day, which was one week ago.

Greenwood student named Doodle 4 Google SC winner

The public is invited to vote for Khalil's entry: http://bit.ly/1TJaZue From the Greenwood Index Journal Article by Ariel Gilreath, photo by Joshua S. Kelley

Khalil LakeEarly Friday morning, Emerald High School student Khalil Lake, 20, woke up with no idea it would be different than any other day -- he didn't know he had won an art contest competing with students from across South Carolina. The Doodle 4 Google competition has students from every state as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam draw a Google Doodle that is then judged by six celebrities picked by Google. Khalil, who has cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability, is one of those 53. Representatives from Google kept the award under wraps, only letting Khalil's mom -- Sheree Lake -- and some of his teachers in on the excitement. Sheree got the call from Google about three and a half weeks ago. "She was like, 'Well, Khalil won for the state of South Carolina,' so I go to screaming," she said. "I know I probably scared the poor lady." This year's Doodle 4 Google judges were actress Julie Bowen, astronaut and professor Yvonne Cagle, professional basketball player Stephen Curry, director and animator Glen Keane, professional soccer player Alex Morgan and writer, director and producer B.J. Novak. Khalil was born two months premature and is restricted in what he can do and see, Sheree said. His special education teacher, Stacy White, works with him every day and said he has limited use of his hands. "This was created with an iPad app," White said. "He has one hand that he works with, and so that was created with Finger Paint app." White said Khalil spent about an hour on the doodle, which shows swirling lines and wisps of color coming off each letter in "Google" set in front of a background of wrinkled, wheat-colored paper. When Khalil's wheelchair rolled to the middle of the gym where he could be recognized for his work, students filling Emerald's bleachers erupted into cheers. "It's just so fabulous for Khalil to be able to show the world that even though he is limited by his body, that he is still able to produce so much beauty, and I'm glad the world gets to see that and to celebrate that and to celebrate Khalil," White said. Marsha McKee, special education assistant at the school, said Khalil has a lot going on inside of him that not everyone gets to see. "There's so much trapped inside of his head," McKee said. "When you've got this body that, you've got this in your head, but you can't really, truly see, you can't carry on a big, long conversation, you can't tell anybody what's going on, you can't use your arms and your legs -- to be able to use this and do some kind of communication -- it's just amazing." White said Khalil has surpassed physical and mental tasks his doctors assumed he would never be able to do. "He is very smart," White said. "Since he's come here, he has learned to read 125 words, so if you spelled them to him, he can tell you what those words are. He's learned to add and subtract using manipulatives. He's learned to verbalize his feelings -- things that they said when he came to me that he would not be able to do. So he's grown like, 500 percent. He is, he's a very intelligent kid. He's just precious to me." Khalil was presented with an Android tablet from Google at the celebration, where he was congratulated by local officials, including Mayor Welborn Adams, Sen. Floyd Nicholson and Councilman Gonza Bryant. Voting for Khalil's artwork will be open until Feb. 22 and is open to everyone, and votes can be placed once every day to help Khalil become one of five finalists in the contest. If Khalil wins the national competition, he will receive a $30,000 scholarship and Emerald will receive a $50,000 grant for its art department, along with his artwork being depicted on Google's website for a day. "It would just be a blessing if he actually won the entire thing and could actually go to college, because he loves school," Sheree said. "Even on the weekends he says, 'Mom, is my bus coming?'" To vote for Khalil's entry, visit: http://bit.ly/1TJaZue