Newton teachers' strike inspires teen's Google Doodle contest art — how to vote (2024)

Every year, Google hosts a nationwide competition for a young artist to be featured on Google’s homepage in place of the brand’s signature blue, red, yellow and green logo.

After years of submitting her doodles, 15-year-old Aleeza Amitan, of Newton, was announced as Massachusetts’ state winner, and is currently being considered for the competition’s national winner.

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If Amitan wins first place, she will receive a $55,000 college scholarship as well as $50,000 in supplies and technology for her school, Newton South High School.

However, national winners rely on votes — and voting is only open until Tuesday, June 4.

This year’s Doodle for Google theme calls for artists to create a doodle around their wish for the next 25 years, to celebrate Google’s 25th birthday, according to a Google blog post about the contest.

Amitan’s doodle is based around education and was partially inspired by the Newton public school strikes that took place earlier this year. Her doodle is named “When education flourishes, so does the world.”

“Since my teachers went on strike for two weeks, I really had some time to realize how important being in school is,” she said. “It just really showed me the value of getting into school and having that time to learn.”

• Read more: Newton teachers’ strike closes schools for 9th straight day

Amitan said her wish for the next 25 years is for more people to have access to the same level of education she and the people of her city have.

Her doodle shows six people engaging in an academic activity, all representing one of Google’s letters.

“For the G,” Amitan said, “I was thinking of a teacher ... she’s holding up a book. I drew the letter G and a picture of a cat.” The inspiration behind the image was the Spanish word for cat, gato.

For the first O, Amitan doodled a little boy drawing on a brick wall, and instead of using the letter O, she used a zero with a plus symbol to show he is writing a math equation.

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“The second O is representing science — chemistry specifically,” she said. “It’s a girl doing some sort of experiment.”

The second G shows a person on their laptop and represents someone writing, Amitan said.

The L shows a little kid writing the alphabet on a scroll, and E shows a girl reading — each frame represents a different nationality, race, ethnicity and age.

“I was really trying to include as many different people as I could,” she said, “Because my wish is that everybody ... can have a good education.”

Amitan said she worked on designing the doodle over the span of three weeks.

“My wish is pretty understandable,” she said. “Most people I know have gotten education and understand the importance of it (and) how important it is to know about the world you live in.”

“Maybe someday, I’ll actually get my wish to come true.”

How to vote:

According to Google, its doodle is “probably one of the most viewed things on the internet - with the ability to inform and entertain billions of people.”

Doodles bring “fun and creativity to important messages.”

After tens of thousands of submissions made their way to the Doodle for Google application page, 55 state and territory finalists were announced May 22, with open voting for a national winner from then until June 4 at 11:59 p.m.

Supporters can cast their votes here. Amitan’s can be found in the Grades 10-12 category.

The runner-ups will receive a $5,000 scholarship in addition to “ on the following tab.

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Five national finalists will be announced after voting ends.

The first place winner will receive a $55,000 scholarship and $50,000 for their school for supplies and technology in addition to their doodle live on Google for 24 hours.

Five runners-up will receive a $5,000 scholarship, in addition Google hardware and “Fun Google swag.”