12-year-old student from West California Academy of Art and Design Won 2024 Doodle4Google California State 1st Place

​A talented student from West California Academy of Art and Design (WCAAD) could soon have her art on the Google homepage for millions to see. Google is announcing the 55 State and Territory winners in its annual Doodle for Google competition, a contest open to K-12 students across the United States to design a Google Doodle inspired by the theme “My Wish for the Next 25 Years”. 

​Sophia Li, a 6-7 Group Grade student, is one of the 55 State and Territory Winners across the country. Her doodle was selected from thousands of entries received this year. 

​The Google company sent a representative to present the award to Sophia on Tuesday, May 21st at West California Academy of Art and Design in San Gabriel, providing a balloon bouquet along with the prize.

​Each year, hundreds of students across the U.S. submit their artwork with a new interpretation of the famous Google typeface in hopes of having their work displayed on the search engine’s homepage. This year, Google is celebrating its 25th anniversary and artists were asked to convey their wish for the next 25 years through their artwork. 

​“My dream for the next 25 years is: I wish family would laugh more, watch sunset more, eat dinner together, and the family would stay together, so no one would die alone in this drawing. I drew a family that loves each other, a family that would risk their life for each other, a family that would be there for each other, a family that would be patience with other shortcomings. The idea for this drawing is because when I was small, my sister was going to university so I barely spent any time with her and when I grew up, she got a job and then we still didn’t spend time together, so my dream is that we all be together forever.” Sophia said.

​John Wu, the Mayor of San Gabriel, made a congratulation speech at the award ceremony. He said that he was extremely proud to see the California first place winner in his community, San Gabriel. He is also honored that there is a professional art school in his community that has the ability to cultivate future outstanding artists. 

​Tony Ding, the Councilmember of San Gabriel, said in his congratulating speech that he was pleased to see that the next generation has such good learning and practical opportunities, to learn art knowledge and skills in professional art schools, to actively participate in national and even global art competitions.

​Sophia started art study at the Academy in 2022 via online platform.  Her family moved to Los Angeles in 2023 and Sophia continued her art learning journey with the Academy by taking the in-person classes.

​“Sophia lives in Laguna Beach, far from our school，but she takes dual classes every week, one Sketching and one Creative.” Lei Wang, the WCAD Principal, said, “Her art skills improve quickly and she has won multiple awards at various art contests.”

​Sophia won the 1st Place awards at both the 2022 and the 2024 KJC International Inc. “Stop Hate” art competitions; the 49th Congressional Award at the 2023 Health Fair drawing contest; the 2nd Place award at the 2023 World Journal “My Magical Kitchen at Home” art contest；the 1st Place award at the 2023-24 US Kids Cover Design contest, having her winning artwork published on the Jack and Jill 2024 May/June issue.

​Omar Gallegos, WCCAD Vice Principal and Director of Education, said that this google art contest is good for students to fully unleash their imagination and creative abilities, and is of great significance for the future development of the entire society.

Sophia’s art instructor Noriko Yanagisawa said that the way this google contest is designed is very unique, and it really pushes students to deeply explore into their creativities. “As a children’s art instructor with 17 years experiences, one of the biggest challenges is to promote students to get motivated.” she said, “When students come up with interesting ideas, their faces light up, and they get even more motivated to work on this assignment. And when other students see that, they also want to try it. This is a proof that Doodle for Google is a great contest.” ​

​Sophia’s mom also expressed her gratitude to the Academy and the instructors. “My daughter is lucky to have an excellent instructor and a wonderful art school,” she said, “Sophia is getting more creative and studying at this art school has become the happiest time for her.”

​As a world-famous high-tech company, Google holds such art event with a purpose of encouraging creativity in United States school students through a logo contest. According to the contest requirement, each doodle must incorporate the letters G-o-o-g-l-e.  Young artists can utilize any materials to bring their creation to life. Doodles are judged on artistic merit, creativity and how well the artist communicated the theme.

​Entries are eventually whittled down to the top 55, with one artist representing each state or region. Those regional winners are separated into five categories based on age and grade level, and one winner will be chosen from each of those categories before an overall winner is selected. Sophia was chosen to represent California and is competing in the 6-7th grade category.

​In the next stage of the contest, Google will invite the public to vote for their favorite Doodle from the 55 State and Territory Winners, in order to help determine which students will go on to become one of the 5 National Finalists. The national winner will get a $55,000 college scholarship, $50,000 worth supplies and tech package for their school or organization, a personalized trophy and, of course, the chance to see their artwork on the front page of the world’s most popular search engine.

​West California Academy of Art and Design students have been taking active part in the annual Doodle for Google art contest every year since 2017. This is the third year that the Academy students win the Doodle for Google California State 1st Place Award. 
 
Eric Chang，7 years old, won the year of 2017 with the theme “What I See for the Future”. He depicted his vision for the future Under the Sea: “it would be a colorful world under the blue sea--high rise buildings, cars, boys and girls coexist with submarines and a variety of living sea creatures. What a dynamic and beautiful scene I can imagine, it would be our ideal playground for me in the future.”

​Angie Li, 10 years old, won the year of 2020 with the theme “I Show My Kindness by...” Angie’s winning artwork is titled “Sharing Is Caring”, based on her true story: “when I was eight years old, I donated my hair to people who need it. That was when I learned that some people are unlucky and bald because they are sick. People who are kind would help them donate their hair for people to make into wigs.”

​According to Lei, the Academy encourages students to participate in art contests, “We believe that creativity is the key to shape our children’s future,” said Lei, “joining contest is good for our students to hone both drawing skills and design ability, and expand their imagination. We hope this google contest will continue and more children will become tomorrow’s creative professionals!”