Doodle4Google finalist is looking for support in bid to help St Thomas’s school win €10k grant
By Mary Dennehy
A SIXTH class student from Jobstown is looking for the community’s votes in landing a €10,000 technology grant for her school, alongside promoting her area as a “great place to live”.
Sophie Singleton (12) is a student of St Thomas’s Senior National School in Jobstown and one of the finalists in this year’s Doodle4Google competition, a national awards programme which, now in its eighth year, invites primary and secondary school students to create their own Google doodle.
This year young artists were invited to create a doodle under the theme of ‘Ireland is . . .’ and after much thought Sophie colourfully created a doodle which merged the Ha’penny Bridge, the Daniel O’Connell statue, the GPO, Giant’s Causeway and a pot of gold with the famous Google logo.
Some 300 semi-finalists were chosen from the hundreds of entries, along with Sophie one of 75 doodles that have now made it through to the finals and the public voting stage, which opened last Sunday, February 7.
Sophie told The Echo: “I would love to win the technology grant for my school and if I win, I also get a €5,000 scholarship.
“It would be so good for my school and also for my community. People who don’t live in Tallaght sometimes think bad things about Jobstown, but good things do come out of Jobstown – lots of good stuff happens here every day – it is a great place to live.”
When asked how she came up with the idea for her doodle, Sophie said: “I spent some time thinking about what Ireland means to me and then I thought of the Google letters and what images would work.
“I spent three days thinking about my idea, drawing it and then colouring it in and had a lot of fun. I really hope the community votes for my drawing because it would be great for my school.”
The overall winner, which will be selected from five class group winners, will have their doodle shown on the Google homepage in Ireland for 24 hours this March, with the young artist also receiving a €5,000 scholarship and a €10,000 technology grants for their school.
There will also be a prize for the five class group winners of a Chromebook and one for their teacher. To vote for Sophie and St Thomas’s Senior
National School in Jobstown visit www.google.ie/doodle4google.ie. Voting opens this Sunday, February 7.
