A TRALEE secondary school student has been selected as a finalist in the Doodle 4 Google competition.

Sally O’Mahony from Mercy Secondary School Mounthawk is in with the chance of becoming this year’s overall champion.

This year, students were asked to design a Doodle based on the theme of ‘If I could create anything it would be…’ with the winning Doodle appearing on the Google homepage in April.

Continued below…

Sally’s description of her effort (below) is; “I would create more awareness for the need to cherish nature. The scythe is cutting down the beautiful flowers, the sweltering sun melting our world, the man cutting down the tree is also metaphorically killing himself, and the fish will need to be equipped with oxygen masks if pollution continues.”

Voting to crown the winner of this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition will open from Tuesday, 7th of February and the public will have just two weeks to cast their votes with the poll closing on Tuesday 21st of February. Over 4,200 students across the country picked up their pens, pencils and crayons to enter this year’s competition with 75 finalists being shortlisted.

A panel of judges had the difficult task of selecting the 75 finalists from the thousands of entries that were received, the panel included John McDaid  Creative Director of Dog Ears, a children’s media company based in Derry who make TV, apps, books and events for kids, Aoife Doyle  Director and Co-founder of Pink Kong studios which is an award winning Dublin based animation studio that creates branded animated entertainment for TV, games, film and Advertising Houses and Dr. Andreas Bandelli, CEO of Science Gallery International.

Members of the public can vote from February 7th for their favourite Doodle on https://doodles.google.ie/d4g/.

Voting will close at midnight on the 21st of February. The five most popular doodles, one from each age category, will go forward to the grand final on April 3rd where the overall winner will be announced.

The winner will also receive a €5,000 scholarship towards their third-level studies, a Chromebook, and a €10,000 technology grant for their school. Each of the five class group winners and their teachers will also win a Chromebook each.

CHILDREN and students across Kerry are being asked to bring their imaginations to life, grab their pens, crayons and paintbrushes and get doodling as the deadline approaches for this year’s Doodle for Google 2017 competition.

Twenty students from Kerry made the regional finals in previous years and it is hoped more will make the regional final this year. Last year, Scoil Nuachabháil pupils Jack and Kyran Boyle and Seanie Feehan from Scoil Naomh Eirc, Kilmoyley, were among the 75 regional finalists.

Continued below…

With entries closing on Saturday, November 26, students have only a short time remaining to enter their doodles for this year’s ‘If I could create anything it would be…’ theme.

The prizes for this year’s doodles include a €5,000 scholarship towards the student’s third-level education, with their winning doodle also appearing on the Google.ie homepage for 24 hours.

In addition, the overall winner and their teacher will receive a Chromebook laptop each, with their school also receiving a €10,000 technology grant. Five other category winners and their teachers will also receive Chromebooks.

Fionnuala Meehan, VP and Site Lead of Google Ireland said; “Doodles are meant to surprise and delight people when they visit the Google homepage and past doodles have celebrated some of the most brilliant, talented, and passionate people throughout history. Creativity and technology go hand in hand and I’m constantly amazed at the talent and imagination of students in Ireland.

The 75 finalists will have their doodles displayed on the Doodle 4 Google website and the general public will be able to vote for their favourite doodle. The winners of each category will go attend the grand finale event in the Google headquarters in Dublin where they overall winner will be chosen.

The class groups include:

• Class Group 1 – Junior Infants, Senior Infants

• Class Group 2 – 1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class,

• Class Group 3 – 4th Class, 5th Class, 6th Class

• Class Group 4 – 1st Year, 2nd Year, 3rd Year

• Class Group 5 – Transition Year, 5th Year, 6th Year, Youthreach

Schools can enter the competition by logging onto the competition website 

VOTING for the 2016 Doodle4Google awards has now opened and three Kerry schoolchildren need your votes.

Members of the public can now vote online until the closing date of February 14.

Seanie Feehan, from Scoil Niamh Eirc, Kilmoyley, and Kyran Boyle and Jack Lynch, both from Scoil Nuachabháil, Ballymacelligott, are among the 75 children shortlisted from over 4,000 entries.

Continued below…

The five most popular Doodles, one from each category, go forward to the grand final where the winner will be chosen by the Google Ireland Team.

The winning doodle will then be featured on the Google Ireland Homepage on Easter Monday, March 28, 2016, and the winner will also receive a €5,000 scholarship towards their third-level studies, a Chromebook, and a €10,000 technology grant for their school.

Also each the five class group winners and their teachers will receive a Chromebook each.

Any votes for the children by members of the public will be greatly appreciated.

For more information and how to vote, you can visit www.google.ie/doodle4google/