Surrey Muslim School student Faizaan Buttar is one of three B.C. finalists in Doodle 4 Google, a Canada-wide competition challenging students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 to redesign Google’s logo.
He’s seven years old, in Grade 2. His dad, Muhammad Chaudhry, said he’s very proud of his son.
“I’m so happy,” Chaudhry said. “He’s a very good boy and he’s very clever. A smart kid.”
Faizaan found out about the competition from one of his sisters and made his doodle at home. His favourite subjects in school are art and physical education. He’s inspired by nature, animals and is particularly fond of cheetahs. He was somewhat shy in speaking with the Now-Leader, but is excited about the contest. Asked where he got his idea for his doodle, he replied, “It came up in my mind.”
Google launched the Doodle 4 Google contest in March, in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday this year, asking students to submit doodles and complete the statement: “What I see for Canada’s future is…”
Out of more than 10,000 submissions, 12 finalists were chosen nationwide and three are from British Columbia.
Faizaan’s doodle, entitled “A Beautiful World,” is a finalist in the Kindergarten to Grade 3 category. The Newton student’s Google description for his entry reads: “I see harmony between people and nature, and making sure there are no endangered species or global warming.”
“I am really proud of him,” said Faizaan’s mom, Azmat Tahira. “I believe it’s a great opportunity for him to be creative, try new things, explore, while focusing on Canadian aspects and creating something he is passionate about. Our family is very thrilled and have no words to describe how happy we are.”
Brooke Kelly, a spokeswoman at mediaprofile.com, said, “Google is now encouraging Canadians to vote for their favourite doodles by June 2 to give students a chance to have their artwork featured on Google.ca for a day and win a $10,000 university scholarship.
We can’t wait to see what happens next and hope for the best.”
“Only one overall winner will get the $10,000 scholarship prize and their doodle on the homepage,” she explained. The national winner will also receive a $10,000 technology award for their school while each Grade Group winner will receive a $5,000 technology award for their school.
You can vote for your favourite at g.co/d4gcanada
The winning doodles will be revealed on June 13 at the Art Galley of Ontario
The three entry categories are Kindergarten to Grade 3, Grades 4 to 6, Grades 7 to 9 and Grades 10 to 12. The other two B.C. finalists are Richmond’s Ahmber Bains, of Crofton House School, in the Grades 4 to 6 category for her doodle “Vision,” and Burnaby’s Lina Yan, of David Thompson Secondary School, in the Grades 7 to 9 category for her submission “Into the 22nd Century.”
In his category, Faizaan Buttar is competing with “A Big Google Waterslide,” by Olin Wang of Richmond Hill, Ontario and “A Greener Canada,” by Leo Cao of Markham, Ontario.