Eastin Elementary Has a Google Doodle Finalist

Ten-year-old Albert Pei draws for fun. Now he's drawing local—and potentially national—attention for his skill with colored pencils.

About two weeks ago, a Google representative called , where Albert is enrolled as a fourth grader, to tell them that that he was a regional finalist in its fourth annual Doodle 4 Google Contest.

The competition is open to all K-12 students in the United States. This year it challenged contestants to create their own Google logo inspired by the theme, "What I’d like to do someday…"

For Albert, who wants to be an artist, that meant using his best colored pencils to craft the Google logo with a colorful array of art supplies.

Google employees and a cast of famous guest judges narrowed down the field of more than 107,000 submissions to 40—one finalist in each of the four age groups per geographic region.

Albert is the winner in the Grade 4-6 group for Region 10, which includes not only California but Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.

He will fly to New York City (a first for him) on May 18 for a ceremony the following day honoring the 40 regional finalists.

It is then, on May 19, that Google will announce the winner of the contest. The public has the opportunity to whittle the playing field down to four national finalists (one in each age group) before Google awards the grand prize to one of the top vote-getters. 

If Albert wins, he'll receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a new laptop and a Wacom digital design tablet, and his drawing will be displayed on Google's home page on May 20. His school, Eastin, will receive a $25,000 technology grant to fund additional computer purchases.

Voting opened to the public on May 4 and closes this Friday, May 13, at 5 p.m.

Eastin principal Anthony La Rue said the school is excited about the news of Albert's accomplishment—a reminder amidst bad news and budget cuts that its students can and do succeed.

"We needed something like this," La Rue said. "This is the kind of stuff that makes staff feel good."

La Rue also said the school could use the money.

"If we had two computer labs, that would be quite beneficial," he Right now, the school's lab can only house one class at a time, which becomes cumbersome when the school tests its students using computer programs.

But since he was selected as a finalist, Albert is just trying to digest it all.

"You didn't know how big this is, huh?" La Rue asked him.

"No, not really," he replied.

Albert said he decided to enter the contest back in February to take a break from homework one day. "It was just for fun," he said.

It turned out to be a time-consuming process, however, involving drawing and redrawing, and even printing out the logo on special paper.

"It took a lot of time," Albert said.

He might never have entered the competition if it weren't for school librarian Carol Engberg.

Engberg heard about the competition last spring but was too busy at the time to help organize submissions at Eastin. But this year, when a friend forwarded her information about the 2011 contest, Engberg decided to act.

"I went,' I'm doing this.' It was three weeks away from the deadline," she said.

She passed out information on how to enter the contest to all third, fourth and fifth grade students and got back 56 applications.

Not knowing that an Eastin student would make it so far in the contest, Engberg organized an assembly in March for all the students who had entered, displaying their Google artwork and accompanying statements.

"It's very rare that they honor a local school," she said. (Google is based 20 miles southwest of Union City, in Mountain View).

Eastin said she was impressed by the thoughtfulness of many of the statements she received, but she thinks Albert's was one of the best for its technical expertise and detail.

Albert said he's been drawing for years.

"Every day I would draw things when it was playtime," he said. His grandparents took notice and urged Albert's mom to enroll him in drawing classes, which he now attends every week.

Albert won second place last year in his age group for his drawing of an armadillo in a youth wildlife art contest sponsored by the National Rifle Association.

Albert's teacher Gary Suplick said his student is also a gifted writer.

Albert won Eastin's school-wide spelling bee earlier this year, which allowed him to participate in the Alameda County Spelling Bee and  the regional round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Now that he's made it so far in the Google contest, Eastin is rooting for Albert to make it to the end.

"It's really important," Engberg said. But, she told Albert, "You already are an artist."

As a regional finalist, Albert's Google artwork will be displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York after May 19, when the winner is announced.

Albert is one of two students in the Bay Area to make it this far; 7-year-old Matteo Lopez of South San Francisco also won the regional contest for his age group.